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Artificial meat

Lab meat is meat grown in laboratories from a handful of progenitor cells .
The process takes away the need to rear livestock, thereby mitigating the environmental impact of the meat industry.
The growing demand for meat consumption, particularly in developing countries like India, is devastating for the environment.

Facts

15% of all greenhouse gases are released by livestock
1kg of mutton needs around 8,000 litres of water
Such ‘clean’ meat will hit shelves in the US by this year end and several companies are in the race to perfect the product.
At present the processes required to make lab meat is projected to be expensive.
But technology is hard at work to bring costs down. And once it achieves economies of scale, lab meat should become affordable to all.
India: land and water are stressed resources
Lab meat could be a sustainable alternative to traditional meat.
It can stop: beef bans, anti-meat crusades and the violent politics around them.
Since lab meat doesn’t involve slaughtering animals, there shouldn’t be any cause for proscribing its consumption.
Ultimately, it will come down to a taste test.
Consumption patterns will only change if lab meat is found to be indistinguishable in taste from traditional meat advanced’

Important news

The Centre will not advance the 2019 general election, and it will be held as per schedule, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh
“The 2019 Lok Sabha election will be held on time. There is no question of advancing the poll dates. The entire process will be over before May 15, 2019,” he said.
Amid the Centre’s push for simultaneous elections to the Assemblies and the Lok Sabha, there was speculation that the Lok Sabha election could be advanced by a few months to coincide with the elections to the Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Mizoram Assemblies, whose terms expire in December 2018-January 2019.

CJI will name Ranjan Gogoi, say sources

Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra will endorse Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court, as his successor and the 46th Chief Justice of India, sources said.
“A 100 per cent, the Chief Justice will recommend Justice Gogoi as his successor,” Supreme Court Bar Association president and senior advocate Vikas Singh said over the phone on Saturday.
Bar Council of India (BCI) Chairman and senior advocate Manan Kumar Mishra said the BCI had sent a letter to Chief Justice Misra a month ago, urging him to recommend Justice Gogoi as the next Chief Justice of India.
“Convention will be followed. There is no room for doubt. Justice Gogoi will be recommended,” Mr. Mishra said.
On Saturday, the Ministry of Law and Justice said they had not received any official communication from Chief Justice Misra yet.

71% surge in I-T returns

The number of income tax return (ITR) filings surged 71% to 5.42 crore till August 31 — the last date of submission for financial year 2017-18. This was led by a massive eight-fold jump in returns filed by entities under the presumptive tax scheme, and a 54% increase in e-filing by salaried individuals.
The increase in the number of returns reveals a marked improvement in the level of voluntary compliance by taxpayers. ‘

India moving towards tax-compliant society’

Almost 34.95 lakh returns were e-filed on August 31, 2018.
The total number of e-returns of salaried individual taxpayers filed till August 31 increased to 3.37 crore from the 2.19 crore returns filed during the corresponding period in 2017, registering a growth of almost 54%. • This reflects the impact of continuous leveraging of technology to improve taxpayer service delivery.

In search of a second home for brow-antlered deer

From near extinction in 1951, the population of the brow-antlered deer, aka dancing deer — found only Manipur’s Bishnupur district — is just 260, according to a joint census conducted by the Forest Department and wildlife enthusiasts in March 2016.
Though encouraging, it is nothing to write home about.
Foreign and domestic tourists come to Manipur to see, among others, this deer and pony which are not found anywhere in the world.
State animal of Manipur, Schedule-1 of Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,

Endangered on IUCN Red List

Gaganyaan

India’s first manned space flight – Gaganyaan – is expected to send three persons into the space for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.
Dr Sivan added that the GSLV MK-III launch vehicle will be used to launch Gaganyaan from Sri Harikota. • He also said that estimated cost of Gaganyaan mission is expected to be less than Rs 10,000 crores and it will be very cost effective as compared to other international missions. The mission will be completed in 40 months.
Jitendra Singh said two unmanned Gaganyaan missions will be undertaken prior to sending humans.
The spacecraft will be placed in a low earth orbit of 300-400 km.
Singh said the complex programme will truly be a national endeavour with the participation of ISRO, academia, industry as well as other government and private agencies as stake holders.
Demonetisation report will be tabled: Moily

M. Veerappa Moily, Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Finance, has said that he had not yet given up on the report on demonetisation, and he would work to build a consensus to table it by the winter session.
“We will have a meeting next month to discuss fresh evidence released by the RBI on the number of currency notes that have returned after demonetisation. I have not yet given up on the report,” he told The Hindu.
Mr. Moily has headed the committee for the past four years. “The committee has an exemplary record. Since it was constituted, we have delivered 69 reports, all by consensus, even when the BJP is in a majority with 12 members,” he said.

EMIs to pinch harder

EMIs on home and auto loans will pinch more with leading lenders SBI and ICICI Bank deciding to increase lending rates from Saturday.
The SBI increased the marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 20 basis points (bps) across all loan tenures.
As a result, the one-year MCLR of SBI, to which most of the retail loans are linked, will be 8.45% with effect from September 1.
ICICI Bank also increased its MCLR by 15-25 bps across various loan tenures