- Haemophilia A: Recently, the union Science and Technology Minister told that India has conducted the first human clinical trial of gene therapy for ‘haemophilia A’ at Christian Medical College – Vellore. It is a genetic disorder that affects the body’s ability to form blood clots.
It is a rare disorder in which the blood doesn’t clot in the typical way because it doesn’t have enough blood-clotting proteins. It is a sex linked disorder. The gene for haemophilia is carried on the X chromosome.It is caused by a mutation or change, in one of the genes, that provides instructions for making the clotting factor proteins needed to form a blood clot. This type is caused by a lack or decrease of clotting factor VIII.Signs and symptoms of haemophilia vary, depending on the level of clotting factors. Males are much more likely to have haemophilia than are females.It involves replacement therapy, which involves infusing clotting factor concentrates into the bloodstream to help the blood clot. Other treatments may include medications to promote clotting or surgery to repair damage caused by bleeding.
- Financial Intelligence Unit: It was set up by the Government of India in November 2004.
It is the central national agency responsible for receiving, processing, analyzing and disseminating information relating to suspect financial transactions.
It is also responsible for coordinating and strengthening efforts of national and international intelligence, investigation and enforcement agencies in pursuing global efforts against money laundering and financing of terrorism.It is an independent body reporting directly to the Economic Intelligence Council (EIC) headed by the Union Finance Minister.
- Steadfast Defender 2024: It is NATO’s most extensive military exercise since the Cold War era. It involves 90,000 forces from 31 member countries and NATO partner Sweden and is conducted across various NATO nations.
The exercise will feature an impressive array of military hardware, including over 50 naval vessels ranging from aircraft carriers to destroyers, and a formidable air contingent of more than 80 units comprising fighter jets, helicopters, and drones. The ground forces are equally robust, with at least 1,100 combat vehicles, including 133 tanks and 533 infantry fighting vehicles, demonstrating NATO’s ground capabilities. The purpose of Steadfast Defender 2024 is to put NATO’s new regional defense plans to the test.
- North Atlantic right whales: These whales are migratory animals, spending the winter in warmer waters and migrating to the poles for cooler waters in late summer. These whales inhabit the temperate and subpolar waters of the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans.
Depending on the time of year and which hemisphere they’re found, right whales will spend much of their time near bays and peninsulas and in shallow, coastal waters.
These are generally restricted to the coastal waters of the East Coast of the United States and Canada.
There are three recognized species of right whales that occur in different parts of the world. These are Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis), North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) and North Pacific right whales.
These whales often skim feed at or just below the water surface, slowly swimming through clouds of plankton with their mouths half open and then straining the plankton through their long
baleen plates.IUCN: Critically endangered CITES: Appendix I
