📝 India’s first indigenously developed HPV test kits[1]
🚀 Developed by Molbio Diagnostics Limited and Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt. Ltd. ⇒ For cervical cancer screening ⇒ Successful scientific review and validation was recently announced by the Department of Biotechnology, through its Grand Challenges India initiative at BIRAC.
🚀 Utilises a chip-based RT-PCR testing method ⇒ facilitates rapid and decentralised detection of eight high-risk HPV genotypes.
💡Cervical cancer: A disease where cells in the cervix (lower part of the uterus) become abnormal and start to grow out of control ⇒ Primarily caused by persistent infection with certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus.
👉🏽 A major health challenge in India, accounting for nearly 25% of global cases ⇒ 2nd most prevalent cancer among Indian women.
📝 Spring 2025 Poverty and Equity report[2]
🚀 Released by the World Bank.
👉🏽 India has lifted over 17.1 crore people out of extreme poverty in the last ten years ⇒ 5 states, UP, Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal, and MP, accounted for two-thirds of the overall decline in extreme poverty.
👉🏽 In rural areas, extreme poverty fell from 18.4% in 2011-12 to 2.8% in 2022-23. It fell from 10.7% to 1.1% in urban areas over the same period.
📝 UDAN Scheme[3]
🚀 Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik scheme ⇒ Launched in 2016 ⇒ Seeks to make flying affordable and accessible for the common citizen, especially in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.
👉🏽 Conceptualised under the National Civil Aviation Policy (NCAP) 2016 with a 10-year horizon ⇒ Operates on a market-driven model supported by financial incentives such as Viability Gap Funding (VGF) and fare caps.
👉🏽 1st UDAN flight, connecting Shimla and Delhi, took off on April 27, 2017.
🚀 A revamped version of the scheme aims to add 120 new destinations and enable affordable air travel for 4 crore more passengers over the next decade ⇒ Focus: Remote, hilly, and aspirational districts, particularly in the Northeast, with special support for helipads and smaller airports.
💡 UDAN phases
UDAN 1.0 (2017): Connected many airports.
UDAN 2.0 (2018): Extended coverage to many underserved and unserved airports, including helipads.
UDAN 3.0 (2019): Introduced tourism-specific routes and seaplane operations, with increased focus on the Northeast.
UDAN 4.0 (2020): Targeted hilly regions and island territories, and enhanced helicopter and seaplane services.
🤔 One of my friends mentioned something called the Krishi UDAN scheme… Why would farmers need aeroplanes? What exactly is this scheme all about?
📝 Miscellaneous [4]
🚀 Port of Shahid Rajaee: A part of the port of Bandar Abbas, Iran ⇒ Located in the Strait of Hormuz.