Viability Gap Funding for development of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) Scheme

Recently the Union Cabinet, chaired by the Hon'ble Prime Minister approved the Scheme for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for development of BESS to Energize the Nation for a Brighter Tomorrow

• The scheme aims to provide clean, reliable, and affordable electricity to the citizens.
• The scheme envisages development of 4,000 MWh of BESS projects by 2030-31, with a financial support of up to 40% of the capital cost as budgetary support in the form of Viability Gap Funding (VGF).
• The VGF for development of BESS Scheme, with an initial outlay of Rs.9,400 crore, including a budgetary support of Rs.3,760 crore.
• The entire VGF of Rs. 3,760 crore for this scheme will be borne by the Central Government
• The VGF shall be disbursed in 5 tranches linked with the various stages of implementation of BESS projects.
• To ensure that the benefits of the scheme reach the consumers, a minimum of 85% of the BESS project capacity will be made available to Distribution Companies (Discoms).
• VGF grants will be carried out through a transparent competitive bidding process, promoting a level playing field for both public and private sector entities.

Ayurvidya, Supraja and Vayomitra

Recently the Ministry of Ayush during its regional review meeting has mentioned about strengthening Ayush programmes on Ayurvidya, Supraja and Vayomitra to enhance the quality of lives of people

• Ayurvidya – Promotion of healthy lifestyle through Ayush for school children.
• Supraja – Ayush for Maternal & Neonatal intervention.
• Vayomitra – Ayush based geriatric programme for Prevention and management of Osteoarthritis and other musculoskeletal disorders.

Demon Particles

Recently a team of scientists led by Peter Abbamonte of the University of Illinois have discovered Demon Particle which was proposed by the physicist David Pines in 1956

• Electrons have both mass and charge.
• In 1956, physicist David Pines predicted that the combinations of electrons in a solid could form a composite particle that is massless, has no charge and does not interact with light.
• This is called as a demon particle.
• It is a collection of particles or a composite particle, made of electrons.
• It is has no mass, no charge and can be formed at any temperature.
• It has ability to transmit electrical currents without any hindrance.
• Demon plays a fundamental role in the characteristics of several metals.
• Demon particle exhibits Plasmon-like behaviour and presents particular experimental difficulties because it is electrically neutral.
• Plasmons are collective oscillations of the electrons which are present at the bulk and surface of conducting materials and in the neighborhood of conducting particles.
• It is a quasiparticle.
• Quasiparticle is a concept used to describe a collective behaviour of a group of particles that can be treated as if they were a single particle.

NPCI products

Recently the national payment corporation of India has launched range of products that includes Credit Line on UPI, UPI LITE X, and Tap & Pay and Hello! UPI for better and faster transactions

• Hello! UPI is a voice-enabled UPI which will help users make payments via apps, telecom calls, and IoT devices in Hindi and English.
• Hello! UPI has been divided into segments such as Conversational Payments on UPI and BillPay Connect.
• BillPay Connect offers Voice Assisted Bill Payments facility.
• UPI LITE X was launched for offline payments.
• UPI LITE X offers payments faster than other payment methods as is uses Near Field Communication (NFC) for transactions.
• UPI Tap & Pay allows users to simply tap NFC-enabled QR codes at merchant locations to complete their payments.
• All these products are aimed at creating an inclusive, resilient, and sustainable digital payments ecosystem and will help UPI achieve the target of 100 billion transactions per month.

Pirola

In recent times there is rise of Covid-19 infections in multiple countries, driven by a new Coronavirus variant called BA.2.86, informally being termed as ‘Pirola’

• Pirola or BA2.86 is one of the lineages of highly-mutated Omicron variant of Covid-19 virus.
• Pirola has around 30 genetic changes (mutations) from its parent Omicron variant. This gives it the capacity to be immune evasive and highly transmissible.
• It is currently in the WHO list of 'variants under monitoring'.
• The impacted Countries includes Israel, Denmark and USA, South Africa and UK.
• The strain is quite virulent but the symptoms are mild.
• Symptoms - Stuff nose, fever, fatigue, cough and sneezing, rashes, eye redness and diarrhoea.
• Pirola might have a higher affinity for infecting individuals who have either previously contracted COVID-19 or have been vaccinated against it.
• Vaccine - The previously administered vaccines shows an efficacy even though the mutations are high.