Explanation:

According to the latest World Drug Report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the fourth highest seizure of opium in 2018 was reported from India, after Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Drug seizures in India and neighbourhood
The maximum of 644 tonnes of opium was seized in Iran, followed by 27 tonnes in Afghanistan and 19 tonnes in Pakistan.
In India, the figure stood at four tonnes in 2018.
Heroin
Heroin is manufactured from the morphine extracted from the seed pod of opium poppy plants.
Iran reported the highest seizure of heroin (25 tonnes), followed by Turkey, United States, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
India was at the 12th position in the world.
Global pattern
97% of the total global production of opium in the past five years came from only three countries.
About 84% of the total opium was produced in Afghanistan, from where it is supplied to neighbouring countries, Europe, west Asia, south Asia and Africa.
From Myanmar, which accounts for 7% of the global opium production, and Laos, where 1% of the opium is produced, it is supplied to east and south-east Asia and Oceania.
Mexico accounts for 6% of the global opium production, while Colombia and Guatemala account for less than 1% of global production.
Some other details
The report said that the global area under opium poppy cultivation declined for the second year in a row in 2019.
It went down by 17% in 2018 and by 30% in 2019.
Despite the decline in cultivation, opium production remained stable in 2019, with higher yields reported in the main opium production areas.
Quantities of seized opiates remained concentrated in Asia, notably in south-west Asia (70%).
Asia is host to more than 90% of global illicit opium production.
Also, it is the world’s largest consumption market for opiates and also accounts for almost 80% of all opiates seized worldwide in 2018.

The World Bank and the Government of India signed the $750 million agreement for the MSME Emergency Response Programme to support increased flow of finance into the hands of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), severely impacted by the COVID-19 crisis.

How will the agreement protect the MSME sector
1. Unlocking liquidity
The Government is focused on ensuring that the abundant financial sector liquidity available flow to NBFCs and that banks.
Banks and NBFCs have turned extremely risk-averse.
This project will support the Government in providing targeted guarantees to incentivize NBFCs.
Project will also support banks to continue lending to viable MSMEs to help sustain them through the crisis.
It will be achieved by de-risking lending from banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to MSMEs.
This derisking will be done through a range of instruments, including credit guarantees.
2. Strengthening NBFCs and SFBs
Improving the funding capacity of the NBFCs and Small Finance Bank (SFBs), will help them respond to the urgent and varied needs of the MSMEs.
This will include supporting government’s refinance facility for NBFCs.
In parallel, the IFC is also providing direct support to SFBs through loans and equity.
3. Enabling financial innovation
Only about 8 percent of MSMEs are served by formal credit channels.
The program will incentivize and mainstream the use of fintech and digital financial services in MSME lending and payments.
Digital platforms will play an important role by enabling lenders, suppliers, and buyers to reach firms faster and at a lower cost.
The digital platform will be helpful especially to small enterprises who currently may not have access to the formal channels.

Explanation:

Lithium, the lightest solid element in existence, plays an important role in our lives, both at the biological and the technological level. Like the majority of chemical elements, its origins stem back to astrophysical phenomena, but its point of genesis was so far unclear. Recently, a group of researchers detected enormous quantities of beryllium-7 — an unstable element which decays into lithium in 53.2 days — inside nova Sagittarii 2015 N.2, which suggests that novae are the main source of lithium in the galaxy.

Importance of lithium in our life

Light inflammable, metal lithium (Li) has brought about transformation in modern communication devices and transportation.
A great deal of today’s technology is powered by lithium in its various shades [remember Li-ion battery!].
But where does the element come from?
The origin of much of the Li can be traced to a single event, the Big-Bang that happened about 13.7 Billion years ago, from which the present-day Universe was also born.

Why lithium was thought to be different?
Li content in the physical Universe has increased by about a factor of four over the life of the Universe.
However, the rest of the elements carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, nickel and so on which grew about a million times over the lifetime of the Universe.
Li, however, understood to be an exemption!
Current understanding is that lithium in stars like our Sun only gets destroyed over their lifetime.
As a matter of fact, the composition of all the elements in the Sun and the Earth is similar.
But, the measured content of Li in the Sun is a factor of 100 lower than that of the Earth, though both are known to have formed together.

Explanation:

NATMO is functioning as a subordinate department under the Department of Science & Technology, Ministry of Science & Technology. Since its inception, it is the sole national agency bearing the responsibility of depicting national framework data in the form of thematic maps and atlases to cater the various needs of different sectors.
NATMO being a specialised Institution of its kind also engaged cartographic and geographical researches at national level.
NATMO has conceived and published more than eight hundred themes under the broad category of physical, social, economic, environmental disciplines.
It has the largest repository of spatial and non-spatial data processed with greater accuracy for delivering good quality products. To ensure precision and value addition, NATMO keeps pace with the most modern technologies viz. GIS , GPS and Remote sensing.

Explanation: Emergency Provisions are included in part XVIII from articles 352 to 360 in the Constitution for dealing with extraordinary situations that may threaten the peace, security, stability and governance of the country or a part thereof.
According to the Constitution it is the duty of the Union Government to ensure that governance of a State is carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution. Under Article 356, the President may issue a proclamation to impose emergency in a state if he is satisfied on receipt of a report from the Governor of the concerned State, or otherwise, that a situation has arisen under which the administration of the State cannot be carried on according to the provisions of the constitution.
– In such a situation, proclamation of emergency by the President is on account of the failure (or breakdown) of constitutional machinery. Thus it is known as “President’s Rule” or “State Emergency” or “Constitutional Emergency”.
Effects of Imposition of President’s Rule in a State
–     The President can assume to himself all or any of the functions of the State Government or he may vest all or any of those functions with the Governor or any other executive authority.
–     The President may dissolve the State Legislative Assembly or put it under suspension. He may authorize the Parliament to make laws on behalf of the State Legislature.
–    The Parliament can delegate the power to make laws for the state to the President or any other body specified by him when the state legislature is suspended or dissolved.