Bees wax is obtained from the honeycombs of bees of Apidae family after the honey has been removed by draining or centrifuging. Beeswax consists of a mixture of esters of fatty acids and fatty alcohols, hydrocarbons and free fatty acids. Minor amounts of free fatty alcohols are also present.
The combs are melted with hot water, steam or solar heat and the melted product is filtered and cast into cakes of yellow bees wax.
White bees waxis obtained by bleaching the yellow bees wax with oxidising agents.
Royal jelly is the mixture of secretions from hypopharyngeal and mandibular glands of worker bees, free from any additive. It is the food of larval and adult queens.
It is a raw and natural food, unprocessed except for filtration which does not undergo addition of substances. The colour, taste and the chemical composition of royal jelly are determined by absorption and transformation by the bees fed with the following two types of foods during the royal jelly production time.
Significance of the sector: About 90,000 tonnes of honey of all varieties is produced annually in the country. There are about 30 lakh honey bee colonies and five lakh people are engaged in the business.
The government is promoting honey production through the mission for integrated development of horticulture (MIDH) and the National Bee Board has been formed for implementing various activities for development of scientific beekeeping under MIDH.
Maintain the momentum of high-level consultations among the Quad countries with the aim of “free and open Info-Pacific region” and progressively move it to a political level.
Australia, Japan, India and the US should work with countries in the IOR to help maintain independent security and economic policies by supporting high-quality alternatives to unilateral Chinese investments and political alignment with Chinese regional objectives.
The four countries should work to oppose the establishment of permanent Chinese military bases in the IOR. This should include demonstrating to China that its security needs can be met through cooperation and consultation with other nations and without the recourse to a “disruptive unilateral military presence.”
Naval fleets should evolve increasingly long range operations. This may require consideration in Japan of new options such as nuclear propulsion for its submarines.
The Quad: Regional coalition known as the ‘Quad’, the quadrilateral formation includes Japan, India, United States and Australia.
All four nations find a common ground of being the democratic nations and common interests of unhindered maritime trade and security. The idea was first mooted by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2007. However, the idea couldn’t move ahead with Australia pulling out of it.
China’s concerns: The coming together of India, the US, Japan and Australia is being seen as building a strategic partnership to deal with China’s rise and its implications.
About ICOMOS: The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) is a prestigious non-government organisation.
It promotes the application of theory, methodology and scientific techniques for conservation of architectural and archaeological heritage across the world.
ICOMOS is also an advisory body to the UNESCO for cultural heritage, in particular for implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
This makes HAL the first PSU (public sector unit) to transact on TReDS across platforms.
RXIL, India’s first TReDS platform, enables MSMEs to gain control of their receivables with enhanced visibility and timeliness.
What is TReDS? TReDS is an online electronic institutional mechanism for facilitating the financing of trade receivables of MSMEs through multiple financiers.
The TReDS Platform will enable discounting of invoices/bills of exchange of MSME Sellers against large Corporates including Govt.
Departments and PSUs, through an auction mechanism, to ensure prompt realization of trade receivables at competitive market rates.
Salient Features of TReDS:
Unified platform for Sellers, Buyers and Financiers.
Eliminates Paper.
Easy Access to Funds.
Transact Online.
Competitive Discount Rates.
Seamless Data Flow.
Standardised Practices.
How does the system work? A seller has to upload the invoice on the platform. It then goes to the buyer for acceptance. Once the buyer accepts, the invoice becomes a factoring unit. The factoring unit then goes to auction. The financiers then enter their discounting (finance) rate
. The seller or buyer, whoever is bearing the interest (financing) cost, gets to accept the final bid. TReDs then settle the trade by debiting the financier and paying the seller.
The amount gets credited the next working day into the seller’s designated bank account through an electronic payment mode.
The second leg of the settlement is when the financier makes the repayment and the amount is repaid to the financier.
It has been observed that China continues to “intrude” Indian cyberspace in a “significant” way. The cyber attacks from China made up 35% of the total number of cyber attacks on official Indian websites, followed by US (17%), Russia (15%), Pakistan (9%), Canada (7%) and Germany (5%).
There is also the possibility of “malicious actors from Pakistan using German and Canadian cyberspace for intruding into Indian cyberspace and carrying out malicious activities”.
They are targeting by sending spear phishing emails with malware attachments. Phishing attacks are usually in the form of an email from a trusted source where they ask for personal details such as bank details personal details, passwords.
Institutions affected: Many of the institutions impacted by the malicious activities have been identified, and they have been advised to take appropriate preventive action.
These include Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), National Informatics Centre (NIC), Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), Railways, Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) and some banks like Punjab National Bank among others.
About CERT-In: What is it? CERT-In (the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) is a government-mandated information technology (IT) security organization. CERT-In was created by the Indian Department of Information Technology in 2004 and operates under the auspices of that department.
It’s purpose: The purpose of CERT-In is to respond to computer security incidents, report on vulnerabilities and promote effective IT security practices throughout the country. According to the provisions of the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008, CERT-In is responsible for overseeing administration of the Act.
· In order to encourage entrepreneurship among youth the scheme was launched on 9th November 2016.
· The scheme aimsat creating a culture of Entrepreneurship amongst youth by motivating, educating and equipping them with basics skills of entrepreneurship.
· The scheme will be launched in 2200 Institutes of Higher Learning (colleges/universities/polytechnics), 300 schools, 500 ITI’s and 50 Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDCs).
· The entrepreneurship education will be provided to interested students through Facilitated Blended Model, which is a combination of e-Learning and Class room teaching.
· The course curriculum is based on experiential learning and emphasises on Learning by Doing.
· E Cell is an essential component of the scheme, which will help students develop their entrepreneurial capabilities by virtue of exposing them to the real-life situations.
· Participating institutes and students will be provided handholding support through a network of 55 Regional/Nodal Hubs, spread across the country.