News in Short

• The Government of Australia has recognised Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. It will enable travellers fully vaccinated with Covaxin to travel to the country.
• Australia has become the first major economy to grant recognition to both the India manufactured vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised the delay in approval of Covaxin by the WHO at the just concluded G20 summit in Rome.
• India stated WHO recognition would help the Indian manufacturers to export vaccines across the world.

• Gary Freedman made history by becoming the first person to fly across New Zealand's Cook Strait in an electric plane.
• Mr. Freedman’s 40-minute solo flight in the small two-seater came 101 years after the first person flew a conventional aircraft over the body of water that separates the South Pacific nation’s two main islands.
• The flight was aimed at drawing attention to the possibilities of greener flying and timed to coincide with the opening of a pivotal U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

• The central government is likely to make a fresh attempt at reaching a consensus with States to set up an all-India judicial service.
• The establishment of All-India Judicial Service (AIJS) is likely to be made part of the agenda of a proposed meeting between Union Law Minister KirenRijiju and State law ministers in November.
• The central government feels that a properly framed All India Judicial Service is important to strengthen the overall justice delivery system of the country.
• All India Judicial Service (AIJS) will give an opportunity for induction of suitably qualified fresh legal talent through a proper all-India merit selection system.

• India’s informal economy has shrunk to around 15-20 per cent of the formal GDP as against 52 per cent three years ago following the adoption of GST, enhanced digitalisation, and demonetisation.
• At least Rs 13 lakh crore has come into the formal economy through various channels over the last few years, including the recent scheme on the e-Shram portal.
• Since 2016, a plethora of measures, which accelerated the digitisation of the economy and the emergence of the gig economy, have facilitated higher formalisation at rates that are possibly much faster than that of most other nations.

• The census of one of the world’s most threatened cetaceans, the Indus river dolphin (Platanistagangetica minor) is all set to commence in the winter as part of a project by the Centre.
• The Indus river dolphin is classified as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and, until recently, it was believed that these dolphins were endemic to Pakistan.
• The Beas river supports a viable population of several key aquatic species and the 185 km stretch of the river starting from 52 Headworks, Talwara to Harike Headworks was declared as the Beas Conservation Reserve in 2018.