1) Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS): PACS are the ground-level cooperative credit institutions that provide short-term, and medium-term agricultural loans to the farmers for the various agricultural and farming activities. PACS are the lowest unit in a three-tier structure
- The first Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) was formed in the year 1904.
- The recent Budget (2023-24) has made a provision to make 2 lakh PACS in the next 5 years and create a multi-purpose PACS in every Panchayat.
- PACS are outside the purview of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, and therefore not regulated by RBI.
2) Follow on Public Offer (FPO): FPO is a process wherein a company already listed on a stock exchange issues new shares to existing investors or shareholders. It is also known as a secondary offering. FPO allows a company to raise additional funds through the issuance of new shares.
- Dilutive FPO: It is when a company issues additional shares and offers them to the public.
- It increases the number of outstanding shares of the company thus reducing earnings per share (EPS).
- Non-dilutive FPO: It is when existing shareholders, like directors or founders, sell their shares and offer them to the public. They are used to change the shareholding ownership.
- At-the-market offering: It is a type of FPO in which a company offers secondary public shares on any given day to raise capital, mostly depending on the prevailing market price.
3) Visva Bharati university: It will soon get the ‘heritage’ tag from UNESCO to take the distinction of world’s first living heritage university.
- It is one of India’s major Central Government funded autonomous university located in Santiniketan, West Bengal known for Visual Art practice and research in India.
- The university was established in 1921 by Nobel Prize Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore.
- Visva Bharati University is renowned for its cultural festivals called Poush Mela and the Basanta Utsab which attracts a number of artisans from all across the country.
4) Guru Ravidas: A North Indian mystic poet of the bhakti movement of Nirguna tradition
- While the exact year of his birth is not known, it is believed that the saint was born in 1377 C.E. The Adi Granth of Sikhs, in addition to the Panchvani are the two of the oldest documented sources of the literary works of Guru Ravidas.
- He is believed to be a disciple of the bhakti saint-poet Ramananda and a contemporary of the bhakti saint-poet Kabir. One of his famous disciples was the saint, Mirabai.
- He wanted to create “Begampura”, a city that knows no sorrow; and a society where caste and class have ceased to matter. His teachings resonated with the people, leading to a religion being born called the Ravidassia religion, or Ravidassia Dharam
5) Sickle Cell Disease: It is a genetic condition that affects haemoglobin — responsible for carrying oxygen in the body– in red blood cells.
- It is inherited when a child receives two genes—one from each parent—that code for abnormal haemoglobin
- In someone who has SCD, the hemoglobin is abnormal, which causes the red blood cells to become hard and sticky and look like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle.”
- Treatment: Medication, blood transfusions and rarely a bone-marrow transplant.
