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■ State Food Safety Index 2021-22: • Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has released the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) 4th State Food Safety Index 2021-22 to measure the performance of states across five parameters. • Tamil Nadu has ranked first among large states in the country in the Fourth State Food Safety Index 2021-2022. • In the larger states category, Tamil Nadu topped the index among 17 large states with 82 points, followed by Gujarat at 77.5 points and Maharashtra at 70 points. Andhra Pradesh performed the worst this year with 26 points. • In the small states category, Goa topped the list, followed by Manipur and Sikkim. Arunachal Pradesh was at the bottom of the list. • Among union territories, Jammu and Kashmir scored highest with 68.5 points, followed by Delhi with 66 and Chandigarh. • There was a significant improvement in rankings of Uttarakhand in Large states category, Tripura in Small states category and Ladakh in the category of Union Territories. • The index, started in 2018-19, is aimed at creating a competitive and positive change in the food safety ecosystem in the country and to galvanise states and UTs to work towards ensuring safe food for citizens. • The State Food Safety Index (SFSI) measures the performance of States on the basis of five parameters prescribed by the Health Ministry. The rating is done by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). • The five parameters are: 1) Human resources and institutional data, 2) Compliance, 3) Food-testing infrastructure and surveillance, 4) Training and capacity building, and 5) Consumer empowerment. • The award ceremony was held on June 7 to mark the World Food Safety Day (June 7). The theme for World Food Safety Day 2022, is “Safer Food, Better Health”. • The winners were felicitated by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya. He praised the crucial role played by FSSAI, a statutory body established under the Food Safety and Standards Act-2006, in ensuring healthy and nutritious food to the people. • The minister also felicitated 11 winners of the EatSmart Cities Challenge launched by FSSAI last year to motivate Smart Cities to develop and execute a plan that supports a healthy, safe and sustainable food environment by adopting ‘Eat Right’ initiatives. • Dr. Mandaviya further launched various innovative initiatives by the FSSAI, including the Eat Right Research Awards and Grants – Phase II, Eat Right Creativity Challenge – Phase III, a school-level competition, and the logo for AyurvedaAahar. • This logo, which contains the initials of Ayurveda and Aahar with five leaves symbolising the five elements of nature, would be beneficial in creating a unique identity for food products and in their easy identification, says a release from the Health Ministry.

📰 Government announces hike in MSP for Kharif season. • The Union Cabinet on Wednesday hiked the minimum support price (MSP) for paddy by ₹100 per quintal for the 2022-23 Kharif season. The rates for 14 Kharif crops have been increased, the hikes ranging from 4% to 8%. • In the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it has been decided that MSP rates for all varieties of 14 kharif crops have been increased.” • On Wednesday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs increased the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for all mandated Kharif crops for marketing season 2022-23. • Paddy is the main kharif crop, the sowing of which has already begun. □ About Minimum Support Price (MSP): • The MSP for a crop is the price at which the government is supposed to procure/buy that crop from farmers if the market price falls below it, and is based on a calculation of at least one-and-a-half times the cost of production incurred by the farmers. • The Minimum Support Price (MSP) is announced by the Union government. •  The MSP is fixed on the recommendations of Commission for Agricultural Costs & Prices (CACP). • The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) of the Union government fixes or takes a final decision on the level of MSPs. • MSP doesn't have statutory backing. Hence, a farmer cannot demand MSP as a matter of right. 

📰 NHAI enters Guinness World Record for laying 75 km highway in 105 hours. • State-owned NHAI has created a Guinness World Record for the longest continuously laid bituminous lane of 75 kilometres in 105 hours and 33 minutes on the national highway between Amravati and Akola districts in Maharashtra. • The Amravati to Akola section is part of NH 53 and this is an important east-east corridor which connects major cities like Kolkata, Raipur, Nagpur and Surat. • The total length of the 75 kilometres of single lane continuous bituminous concrete road is equivalent to 37.5 kilometres of two-lane paved shoulder road and the work started on June 3, at 7:27 am and was completed on June 7, at 5 pm. • The previous Guinness World Record for the longest continuously laid bituminous was for building 25.275 kilometres of road that was achieved in Doha, Qatar in February 2019 and that task was completed in 10 days. 📰 India opposes Environmental Performance Index (EPI), 2022. • India has objected to a report, called the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), 2022, that places India last in a list of 180 countries on managing climate change, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality. • The report is prepared by researchers at the Yale and Columbia universities in the United States. • In a detailed rebuttal, the Union Environment Ministry said that it “does not accept the EPI analysis” and pointed out several parameters, which according to it, were incorrectly weighed by the EPI authors. • India being a developing country and the second largest population will have the increasing trend of GHG (greenhouse gas emissions) and so the correct method, the Environment Ministry said, would be to calculate GHG emissions per capita and have a model with the coefficients taking into account the effect of policies to reduce emissions like increase in use of renewable energy, electric vehicles, creation of carbon sink, etc., to project the values for future years. • Per capita GHG emissions contributed only a “miniscule” 2.6% weight overall in the index. • India was a party to Paris Agreement and has given a goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2070 and hence comparing it to countries with Projected 2050 emissions level in 2050 equal to or below zero receiving the maximum score is against the principle of Equity as enshrined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreements. 📰 India and Vietnam sign mutual logistics agreement. • India and Vietnam on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual logistics support in presence of the two Defence Ministers during the ongoing visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to the Southeast Asian nation. • “The Defence Ministers signed the ‘Joint Vision Statement on India-Vietnam Defence Partnership towards 2030’, which will significantly enhance the scope and scale of existing defence cooperation,” the Defence Ministry said in a statement. • India has signed several logistics agreements including all Quad countries, France, Singapore and South Korea beginning with the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement with the U.S. in 2016. • Logistics agreements are administrative arrangements facilitating access to military facilities for exchange of fuel and provisions on mutual agreement simplifying logistical support and increasing operational turnaround of the military when operating away from India. • Both Ministers also agreed for early finalisation of US$ 500 million Defence Line of Credit extended to Vietnam. • Vietnam is an important partner in India’s Act East policy and the Indo-Pacific vision.

📰 India aims to join NSG, says Jaishankar: • India is looking forward to joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), overcoming the political impediments that are against global interest, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said. • He said India's membership of the MTCR (Missile Technology Control Regime), Australia Group and the Wassenaar Arrangement are significant. All these groupings are multilateral export control regimes. • "As a nation with a substantial nuclear industry, we also look forward to joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group, overcoming the political impediments that are against global interest," Mr Jaishankar said. • The 48-member NSG is an elite club of countries that deals with the trade in nuclear technology and fissile materials besides contributing to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. • China has been stridently opposing India's NSG bid primarily on the grounds that New Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Its opposition has made India's entry into the group difficult as the NSG works on the principle of consensus. □ About Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT): • Treaty on the Non Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also called Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty was signed in 1968 and came into force in 1970. • The Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty was an agreement signed in 1968 by several of the major nuclear and non-nuclear powers that pledged their cooperation in stemming the spread of nuclear technology. • It prevents the spread of nuclear weapons, promotes disarmament and peaceful uses of energy. • India is not a signatory of NPT. 📰 Centre plans to bring 16 common drugs Over the Counter category: • Commonly used drugs for cough, cold, pain and skin irritation such as paracetamol, nasal decongestants and antifungals may soon be available without prescription as the Centre plans to list them under the over-the-counter (OTC) category. • The Union Health Ministry has suggested amendments to the Drugs Rules, 1945, to bring 16 such medicines under Schedule K for providing exemptions from requiring a doctor's prescription so that they can be sold Over-the-Counter by retail sellers under a valid license. • What is Over-the-counter medicines? - Over the Counter (OTC) medicines are drugs you can buy without a prescription. It is also known as Non-prescription medicine. 📰 Cheetahs to be brought to India soon: • The first batch of cheetahs are expected to arrive in India’s Kuno Palpur wildlife sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh by this August. • Five of these animals, extinct in India since the 1950s, are expected to be imported from South Africa and/or Namibia. • The first year of the cheetahs’ arrival will be a trial period. • The country's last spotted Asiatic cheetah died in Chhattisgarh in 1947 and it was declared extinct in the country in 1952. 📰 Govt. advisory board on disability not re-constituted since Nov. 2020: • The Central Advisory Board on Disability, which is mandated to meet every six months under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, has not been re-constituted since the previous board’s three-year term ended in November 2020, something that has been flagged by activists. • The CAB, which has a three-year tenure, is supposed to function as the “national-level consultative and advisory body on disability matters”, according to the Act. • The panel is meant to “facilitate the continuous evolution of a comprehensive policy for the empowerment of persons with disabilities and the full enjoyment of rights”, the Act says. • CAB is the highest policy making body for disability issues.