About India Post Payments Bank (IPPB):

• IPPB has been established under the Department of Posts, Ministry of Communication, with 100% equity owned by the Government of India.
• IPPB was launched on September 1, 2018, aimed at making banking services available at people’s doorstep.
• Mandate: To remove barriers for the unbanked and under-banked and reach the last mile, leveraging a network comprising 160,000 post offices (145,000 in rural areas) and 400,000 postal employees.
• Headquarters: New Delhi
• Functions:
  • The operations of IPPB will be on a smaller scale as compared to other banks and will not advance loans or issue credit cards to avoid risk. 
  • It will accept deposits, offer remittance services, mobile payments/transfers/purchases and other banking services like ATM/debit cards, net banking and third-party fund transfers. 
  • It will accept deposits upto Rs 2 lakh, beyond which the account will be automatically converted into a post office savings account.
  • The products and services of the bank will be made available through various mediums such as counter services, micro ATMs, mobile banking apps, messages, and interactive voice responses.
  • The IPPB will use Aadhaar to open accounts, and a QR card and biometrics will be used for authentication, transactions, and payments.

What are Payments Banks?

• A payments bank is like any other bank but operates on a smaller scale without involving any credit risk. 
• It was set up on the recommendations of the Nachiket Mor Committee.
• Objective: Widen the spread of payment and financial services to small businesses, low-income households, and migrant labor workforce in a secured technology-driven environment.
• They are registered under the Companies Act 2013 but are governed by a host of legislations such as the Banking Regulation Act, 1949; RBI Act, 1934; Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999, etc.
• It needs to have a minimum paid-up capital of Rs. 100,00,00,000.
• Activities that can be performed:
  • It can take deposits up to Rs. 2,00,000. It can accept demand deposits in the form of savings and current accounts.
  • The money received as deposits can be invested in secure government securities only in the form of Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR). This must amount to 75% of the demand deposit balance.
  • The remaining 25% is to be placed as time deposits with other scheduled commercial banks.
  • It can offer remittance services, mobile ayments/transfers/purchases, and other banking services like ATM/debit cards, net banking, and third-party fund transfers.
• Activities that can be performed:
  • It cannot issue loans and credit cards.
  • It cannot accept time deposits or NRI deposits.
  • It cannot set up subsidiaries to undertake non-banking financial activities.

Q1) What is the Press Information Bureau (PIB)? 

Press Information Bureau (PIB) is the nodal agency of the Government of India to disseminate information to the print and electronic media on government policies, programmes, initiatives and achievements. It functions as an interface between the government and media & also serves to provide feedback to the government on people’s reaction as reflected in the media.

Source: India Post Payments Bank Accounts To Be Blocked If PAN Card Not Updated? PIB Clarifies

About circular RNA:

• Ribonucleic acid is a molecule in living cells that carries genetic information and helps in the production of proteins.
• RNAs are in general straight-chain, free-end structures but these circular RNA (‘circRNA’ ) forms a closed-loop.
• The circRNA plays a pivotal role in regulating gene expression and is essential for various biological processes.
• Its role in HIV-1 replication has remained unclear for a long time.
• Characterizing circular RNA can be tricky because it usually is less abundant, making it further challenging to detect in the native form.
• During viral infections, there's so much information from the virus that it can make it hard to find the less common ones like circular RNA.

Highlights about the recent findings

• The researchers developed a novel approach called ‘circDR-Seq’, to successfully capture circRNAs from T-cells (white blood cells) infected with the HIV-1 virus and identified a specific circRNA named ciTRAN, which plays an important role in the multiplication of the virus.
• HIV-1 viral protein R (VpR) is a multifunctional protein that plays specific roles at multiple stages of the HIV-1 viral life cycle and affects anti-HIV functions of the immune cells.
• Further found that HIV-1 infection induces ciTRAN expression in a Vpr-dependent manner and that ciTRAN interacts with serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 1 (SRSF1), a protein known to repress HIV-1 transcription,”
• How does this work?
  • The results suggest that HIV-1 hijacks ciTRAN which is generally altered during immunological signaling, inflammation, and viral infection.
  • It further prevents (SRSF1) from doing its job, thereby promoting efficient viral transcription. 
  • In addition, researchers demonstrated that an SRSF1-inspired mimic can inhibit viral transcription regardless of ciTRAN induction.
  • The hijacking of a host circRNA thus represents a previously unknown facet of primate lentiviruses in overcoming transmission bottlenecks.

Q1) What is Gene?

It is a fundamental unit of heredity in biology. It is a segment of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) that contains the instructions for building and maintaining an organism. Genes carry the information needed to create and regulate proteins, which are the building blocks of cells and perform various functions in the body.

Source: IISER Bhopal scientists develop novel molecule that can hinder viral transcription of HIV-1 virus

About Brent Crude:

• It serves as the most widely used benchmark that defines oil prices around the world.
• The term "Brent" refers to the Brent oil field, which was discovered in the 1970s and became a significant source of oil production.
• About two-thirds of all internationally traded crude oil supplies are priced relative to Brent, making it the most widely used marker of all.
• It is a light, sweet crude oil extracted from different oil fields in the North Sea.
• Its unique properties, low density and low sulphur content, make Brent crude oil simpler to process into products such as gasoline. 
• As its supply is water-borne, Brent crude oil is easy to transport to distant locations.
• The Brent Crude oil price is influenced by various factors, including supply and demand dynamics, geopolitical events, production disruptions, and economic factors.

What is Sweet Crude?

• It refers to crude oil that is extracted that is found to contain very low amounts of sulfur.
• Sulfur is undesirable in crude oils because it lowers the yield of high-value refined products, including gasoline and plastics. 

Other Oil Benchmarks:

• West Texas Intermediate (WTI)
• Dubai Crude

Q1) What is Crude Oil?

Crude oil is a naturally occurring liquid petroleum product composed of hydrocarbon deposits and other organic materials formed from the remains of animals and plants that lived millions of years ago. These organisms were covered by layers of sand, silt, and rock, subject to heat and pressure, and eventually turned into a type of fossil fuel that is refined into usable products, including gasoline, diesel, liquefied petroleum gases, and feedstock for the petrochemical industry.

Source: How rising oil prices can impact Indian economy

About Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET):

• It is the most commonly used thermoplastic polymer in the world.
• It belongs to the family of polyesters.
• Production:
  • PET is produced by the polymerization of ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid.
  • When heated together under the influence of chemical catalysts, ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid produce PET in the form of a molten, viscous mass that can be spun directly to fibres or solidified for later processing as plastic.
  • Properties:
  • It is highly flexible, colorless and semi-crystalline resin in its natural state.
  • It shows good dimensional stability, resistance to impact, moisture, alcohols and solvents.
  • It exhibits excellent electrical insulating properties.
  • It is very lightweight, which reduces transportation costs.
  • It has good gas (oxygen, carbon dioxide) and moisture barrier properties.
  • It is recyclable. It can be commercially recycled by thorough washing and re-melting, or by chemically breaking it down to its component materials to make new PET resin.
• Applications:
  • It is widely used for packaging foods and beverages, especially convenience-sized soft drinks, juices and water.
  • The polymer finds use in fabrics, and the textile industry.
  • It is also used in films to mold parts for automotive, electronics, etc.
  • PET's insulating properties and resistance to moisture make it suitable for various electrical and electronic components, such as insulation for electrical wires and connectors.

Q1) What is a Polymer?

Polymer is any of a class of natural or synthetic substances composed of very large molecules, called macromolecules, that are multiples of simpler chemical units called monomers. Polymers make up many of the materials in living organisms, including, for example, proteins, cellulose, and nucleic acids. 

Source: Newly discovered deep-sea enzyme breaks down PET plastic

About Sarcophagus:

• It is an above-ground stone container for a coffin or dead body that often is often decorated with art, inscriptions, and carvings.
• The word sarcophagus comes from the Greek "sarx" meaning "flesh," and "phagien" meaning "to eat," so that sarcophagus literally translates as "eater of flesh."
• First used in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, the sarcophagus gradually became popular throughout the ancient world. 
• It carried over through the later years of European society, often used for high status members of the clergy, government, or aristocracy.
• Features:
  • They differ in detail from one culture to another. 
  • They are almost always made of stone, limestone being the most popular, but sometimes of granite, sandstone, or marble.
  • They were usually made by being carved, decorated, or constructed ornately.
  • Some were built to be freestanding above ground, as a part of an elaborate tomb or tombs. Others were made for burial, or were placed in crypts.
• Archaeological Significance:
  • Sarcophagi are important artifacts for archaeologists and historians because they provide insights into the art, culture, and beliefs of the societies that created them.
  • The carvings and inscriptions on sarcophagi often contain valuable historical information.
• Example: The most famous Egyptian sarcophagus is perhaps the golden sarcophagus of King Tutankhamun.

Q1) Who was King Tutankhamun?

King Tutankhamun, often referred to simply as King Tut, was an Egyptian pharaoh who reigned during the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom period of ancient Egypt. He is one of the most famous pharaohs in Egyptian history, largely due to the discovery of his nearly intact tomb in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by British archaeologist Howard Carter.

Source: Archaeologists in Gaza unearth large cemetery containing rare lead sarcophagi

About Vizhinjam International Seaport:

• Location: It is located at Vizhinjam, a coastal town in Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala.
• It is designed primarily to cater to container transhipment besides multi-purpose and break bulk cargo. 
• It is developed in a landlord model with a Public Private Partnership component on a design, build, finance, operate and transfer (“DBFOT”) basis. 
• The private partner, the Concessionaire M/s Adani Vizhinjam Port Private Limited has, commenced the construction on 5th December 2015.
• The Port is merely a 10 NM diversion from the international east-west shipping route and is also close to the national/regional road and rail network.
• There would be about 30 berths, most of which would be capable of handling Mother Vessels.
• Significance:
  • It is the only transhipment hub in the Indian subcontinent, closest to the international shipping routes, and is centrally located on the Indian coastline.
  • Around 95 per cent of India’s foreign trade is conducted through the sea route. In value terms, this works out to 70 per cent of the foreign trade.
  • Nearly 30 percent of the freight movement takes place through the international shipping route South of the Indian peninsula, which passes 10 nautical miles off Vizhinjam.
  • Currently, India does not have a deep-water container transhipment terminal and depends on Colombo, Singapore and Salalah ports.
  • This results in a significant loss of foreign currency and revenue, estimated to be about Rs 2,500 crore a year. 

Q1) Which are the major ports in India?

Major ports in India are Chennai Port, Kolkata Port, Haldia Port (West Bengal), Jawaharlal Nehru Port (Maharashtra), Kamarajar Port or Ennore Port (Chennai), Kandla Port (Gujarat), Kochin Port (Kerala), New Mangalore Port (Karnataka), Mormugao Port (Goa), Mumbai Port, Paradip Port (Odisha), Tuticorin Port (Tamil Nadu), Visakhapatnam Port (Andhra Pradesh).

Source: Docking of first ship at Vizhinjam port to be delayed by 10 days

About Psyche mission:

• The journey to the asteroid, also named Psyche, will span nearly six years and cover approximately 3.6 billion kilometers.
• The asteroid orbits the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.
• It is believed to be a remnant core of a planetesimal, composed primarily of iron-nickel metal. 
• Studying it from orbit could provide invaluable insights into the composition of Earth's core.
• In addition to its primary mission, the Psyche spacecraft will also host a pioneering technology demonstration known as NASA’s Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC) experiment.
• This laser communications system aims to test high-bandwidth optical communications back to Earth during the first two years of Psyche's journey.
• This experiment could revolutionise how data is transmitted across vast distances in space, potentially enhancing our ability to explore the farthest reaches of the solar system.
• NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is responsible for mission management, operations and navigation.

What is Deep Space Optical Communication (DSOC)?

• It is a sophisticated new laser communication technology that encodes data in photons at near-infrared wavelengths (rather than radio waves) to communicate between a probe in deep space and Earth.
• Using light instead of radio allows the spacecraft to communicate more data in a given amount of time.
• The DSOC team is based at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Q1) What are Asteroids?

Asteroids are rocky and metallic objects that orbit the Sun and are significantly smaller than planets. They are sometimes referred to as minor planets or planetoids. Asteroids are remnants from the early solar system, dating back billions of years.

Source: Nasa to launch Psyche mission to metal-rich asteroid to find how Earth formed

About Galactic tides:

• It is a tidal force experienced by objects subject to the gravitational field of a galaxy such as the Milky Way. 
• They are caused by gravitational forces within a galaxy, arising in the interactions between celestial objects like stars and gas clouds.
• Effects of Galactic tides
  • These tidal forces influence various aspects of a galaxy’s evolution.
  • They can reshape a galaxy structure by creating tidal tails and bridges, promoting star formation, and disrupting smaller star systems.
  • They also disrupt the orbits of stars, leading to long-term changes in galactic structure.
  • Galactic tides also have a say in the ways in which proximate galaxies do and don’t interact.
  • Researchers have observed the closest galaxy to the Milky Way, the colossal Andromeda, and found that tidal streams near its edges could be signatures of dwarf galaxies that were later devoured.
  • Galactic tides also affect the supermassive black holes at galaxy centres, leading to events that change the ways in which these cosmic beasts interact with nearby stars. 

Q1) What is black hole?

A black hole is a region in space where the gravitational pull is so strong that nothing, not even light, can escape from it. This phenomenon occurs when a massive star collapses under its own gravitational forces or when two massive objects merge, creating a singularity – an infinitely dense point at the center of the black hole.

Source: Galactic tides: Pushing and pulling the heavens

About Mukurthi National Park:

• It is located in the western corner of the Nilgiris Plateau in the northwest corner of Tamil Nadu.
• The park was created to protect its keystone species, the Nilgiri tahr.
• Pykara and Kundah rivers flow through the park along with several perennial streams that originate in the park and drain into the Bhavani Puzha.
• It is designated as the UNESCO World Heritage Site 
• Vegetation: The Park is characterised by montane grasslands and shrublands interspersed with sholas in a high altitude area of high rainfall.
• Flora: Here one can find shrubs like Gaultheria fragrantissima, Helichrysum and Berberis tinctoria. Other plants which can be seen here are Rhododendrons, Cinnamon, Mahonia, Satyrium, Raspberries etc.
• Fauna: The park is home to some of the endangered wild species like Nilgiri tahr, Indian elephants, Nilgiri Langur, Bengal tiger and bonnet macaque etc.

Q1) What is a plateau?

A plateau is a flat, elevated landform characterized by relatively level terrain with steep slopes or cliffs along its edges. Plateaus can vary in size, elevation, and geological composition. They are formed through geological processes and can be found on every continent.

Source: Combing operations conducted in areas surrounding Mukurthi National Park in the Nilgiris

About Ephemerals:

• These are any short-lived plant, usually one that has one or more generations per year.
• They grow only during favourable periods (as when adequate moisture is available) and passing the unfavourable periods in the form of seeds. 
• They are of two types — annual and perennial
  • Annual ephemerals form new individuals every year and are seen for a very short period.
  • They form seeds at the end of their life cycle, remaining dormant till the next year.
  • Perennials have a source like a tuber or a bulb in the soil, so it is the same individual, but the other parts (stem, flowers) are newly formed.”
• Monsoon ephemerals bloom towards the end of May and throughout June, July, August, and September.
• Some other monsoon ephemerals will just form leaves and little branch structures after a few showers.
• These leaves stay for a month or more and then flowering starts, which goes on till July and August. 
• The onset of monsoon brings flowers such as ground orchids (Nervilia and Eulophia), lilies (crinum lily, pancratium lily, grass lily, star lily), wild yam (suran), and Indian squill. 
• Significance
  • The primary job of these flowers is to act as an important source of nectar and pollen for native pollinators.
  • Their presence in all micro habitats on a plateau ensures the appropriate presence of soil and, most importantly, water.

Q1) What are Orchids?

Orchids are a diverse and highly specialized family of flowering plants, known for their unique and often strikingly beautiful flowers. They belong to the family Orchidaceae, which is one of the largest plant families, with thousands of genera and over 25,000 species.

Source: Maharashtra’s ephemerals: plants that wait for monsoon to bloom