Prelims Booster
1. Roen olmi:
- It is a mushroom of the Termitomyces species.
- It grows on termite hills and is locally known as ‘roen olmi’ in Goa.
- It is an edible wild mushroom popular among Goans and consumed during the monsoons.
- These mushrooms have no independent existence. They grow only in association with termites.
- Habitat: It is endemic to the Western Ghats, where the thick forest cover and high humidity provide an ideal breeding ground.
- Ecological significance: It plays a very important role as a powerful biodegrading fungus in forest and grassland ecosystems converting 50% of dead plant material on the ground into rich soil.
- In fact, all Termitomyces species are edible and have unique food value attributed to their texture, flavour, nutrient content, and beneficial mediational properties.
- Additionally, Termito-myces have been recognized for their ethno-medicinal importance in various indigenous communities throughout Asia and Africa.
- Termitomyces species possess various beneficial antioxidant and antimicrobial properties
2. Law Commission in India:
- The Law Commission of India is a non-statutory body constituted by the Union government.
- It is a commission established to ensure that the laws formed are just and fair which work towards its proper implementation.
- It can be referred to as an ad hoc body, which is constituted for the fulfilment of a particular purpose.
- Basically, it works as an advisory body to the Ministry of Law and Justice.
- However, it is not defined under the Indian Constitution. It is constituted as part of Article 39A.
- Article 39A guarantees that no citizen is deprived of the opportunity to get justice due to a lack of resources or other impediments.
3. General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
- It is a treaty of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
- It was created to extend the multilateral trading system to the service sector, in the same way, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) provides such a system for merchandise trade.
- It was signed at the Uruguay Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations’ conclusion and entered into force on January 1, 1995.
- Members: All WTO members are at the same time members of the GATS including India.
- Basic obligations under the GATS may be categorized into two broad groups:
- General obligations that apply to all members and services sector.
- Specific commitments: These are obligations that apply only to the sectors inscribed in a member’s schedule of commitments. Such commitments are laid down in individual schedules whose scope may vary widely between members.
- The GATS applies in principle to all service sectors, with two exceptions.
- Services supplied in the exercise of governmental authority: These are services that are supplied neither on a commercial basis nor in competition with other suppliers.
- These include social security schemes and any other public service, such as health or education that is provided at non-market conditions.
- The Annex on Air Transport Services exempts from coverage measures affecting air traffic rights and services directly related to the exercise of such rights.
New obligations
- The new obligations under their schedules in GATS seek to mitigate the unintended trade-restrictive effects of measures related to licensing requirements and procedures, qualification requirements and procedures and technical standards among themselves.
- The disciplines will be applied on a “most-favoured nation” principle, meaning that they will benefit all WTO members.
- These disciplines have been named Services Domestic Regulation (DSR) and came into force in the 13th Ministerial Conference of the WTO.
Places in News
1. Ross Sea :
- It is a giant bay just 320 km from the South Pole.
- A large portion of the sea is covered by the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest ice shelf in Antarctica.
- The sea is remote and positioned south and slightly east of New Zealand.
- It is the first protected area in Antarctica, and home to most of the world’s penguins and many species of whale.
- It is strongly influenced by the coastal EastWind Drift that sets up a vast clockwise gyre accompanied by deepwater upwelling.
