26th June- Current Affairs

     
     

26^th June- Current Affairs

Proton Therapy :

Ø Proton therapy is a type of Radiation therapy which is also called proton beam therapy.

Ø It uses protons rather than x-rays to treat cancer. At high energy, protons can destroy cancer cells.

Ø It can also be combined with x-ray radiation therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, and/or immunotherapy.

Ø Like x-ray radiation, proton therapy is a type of external-beam radiation therapy.

Ø In India, Tata Memorial Centre (TMC), a grant-in-aid Institution under Department of Atomic Energy, has initiated collaboration with Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) for research in proton therapy. 

Impressed Tortoise :

Ø Wildlife experts have discovered the Impressed Tortoise in Arunachal Pradesh.

Ø Scientific Name: Manouria Impressa

Ø Common name: Impressed Tortoise.

Ø Distribution: it occurs in mountainous forest areas in Southeast Asia in Burma, southern China, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and now has been found in India.

Ø Features: The species has a golden brown shell and skin. Adults are much smaller than their relatives the Asian forest tortoise (Manouria emys).

Ø India was known to be the home of only the Asian Forest Tortoise (Manouria emys) until the discovery of the Impressed Tortoise.

                                                                                                     

     GARUDA-VI :

Ø        The Indian Air Force (IAF) contingent comprising of 120 air-warriors and four Su-30   MKI along with an IL-78 Flight Refueling aircraft, departed for participating in Exercise Garuda-VI.

Ø The Indian Air Force is participating in a bilateral exercise between Indian and French Air Force named Exercise ‘Garuda-VI’ France from 01-12 July 2019.

Ø This is the sixth edition of Exercise Garuda and is being planned at French Air Force Base, Mont-de-Marsan.

Ø The last exercise, ‘Garuda V’ was held at Air Force Station Jodhpur in June 2014.

U.K Sinha Committee on MSMEs :

Ø Earlier, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) formed a committee headed by former SEBI Chairman U.K. Sinha to study the problems faced by MSMEs.  

Key recommendations:

Ø Form a ₹5,000 crore stressed asset fund for MSMEs which will assist units in a cluster becoming sick due to changes in external factors such as plastic ban, which had resulted in large number of such entities becoming non-performing.

Ø RBI should increase the limit for non-collateralised loans to ₹20 lakh.

Ø It also suggested revision in loan limit sanctioned under MUDRA by the Finance Ministry to ₹20 lakh from ₹10 lakh.

Ø Banks that wish to specialise in MSME lending, their sub-targets for farm loans under the priority sector lender could be waived off, and instead can be given a target for loans to the SME sector.

Ø The targets could be of 50% of the net bank credit for universal banks and 80% for small finance banks.

Ø In order to provide loan portability in a seamless manner to MSMEs, RBI should come out with measures on portability of MSME loans with a lock-in-period of one year.