UPSC Daily Current Affairs| One Liners 03-01-2025

One Liners 03-01-2025

Social Issues

Mission Suraksha initiative

• It is also called as Mission COVID Suraksha, the IndianCOVID-19 Vaccine Development Mission.
• Part of – 3^rd stimulus package, AtmanirbharBharat3. 0
• Objective – For promoting research and development of Indian COVID-19 vaccines.

International Relations and Issues

RCIC scheme

• RCIC - Rural Community Immigration Class
• Launched by – Canada
• Aim – To provide a pathway for foreign nationals, including students, to apply for PR if they commit to living and working in designated rural communities.
• Indian students in Canada – They constitute the largest share of international students in Canada, accounting for nearly 40%.

Economy

India in Biopharma Sector

• It currently accounts for 60% of global vaccine production.
• It is home to the 2nd largest number of USFDA-approved manufacturing plants outside the United States.

Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

• UPI – A digital payment system that allows users to make payments and transfers using a mobile app.
• Launched in – 2016.
• Developed by - National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
• Regulated by - Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
• Function – It allows users to send and receive money, pay merchants, and make peer-to-peer requests.
• Transaction limit – Rs.1 lakh per transaction and 20 transactions per day, but these limits may vary by bank and app.
• Transaction charges – They are usually free, but some banks may charge for specific services.

UPI Ecosystem in India

• It now accounting for nearly 8 in every 10 digital transactions.
• UPI penetration – It remains at 30% of the population.
• Duopoly - Extreme market concentration of 2 3rd Party App Providers (TPAPs).
• Phone Pe and Google Pay together control over 85% of the total market share.

Environment

Smart Compost Monitoring Solution

• It is a prototype for an intelligent IoT system that remotely monitors and manages compost which can be used as fertilizer.
• Developed by – International Institute of Information Technology – Bangalore (IIITB)
• Working – It includes a sensor hub associated with each bin to monitor the compost’s pH, temperature, humidity, and CO2 levels.
• It generates alerts using a mobile phone. 

Science

• BIO-E3 Policy
• Bio-E3 – Biotechnology for Economy, Employment, and Environment
• Aim – To shape the country’s economy, employment landscape, and environmental sustainability in the years to come.
• Nafithromycin
• It is India’s 1st Indigenous Antibiotic through public-private collaboration.
• Launched in – 2024
• Aim – To treat both typical and atypical drug-resistant bacteria
• Under – Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) Biotech Industry Program.
• Targets - Community-Acquired Bacterial Pneumonia (CABP) caused by drug-resistant bacteria.
• Advantages – 10 times more effective than azithromycin and offers a 3-day treatment regimen.
• Successful Gene Therapy Trial for Haemophilia
• Conducted at – Christian Medical college, Vellore
• Support of – Department of Biotechnology
• Haemophilia – A rare inherited blood disorder in which the blood doesn't clot in the typical way because it doesn't have enough blood-clotting proteins (clotting factors).

Nano-formulation of Melatonin for Parkinson's disease

• Melatonin - A neurohormone secreted from the pineal gland, an endocrine gland present in the brain.
• It regulates the sleep-wake cycle and is used to treat insomnia could be a potential inducer of mitophagy to mitigate PD.
• Parkinson's disease (PD) - A neurological disorders caused by the death of dopamine-secreting neurons in the brain due to aggregation of synuclein protein inside it.