News in Short

• The Supreme Court stayed further dismantling of the decommissioned aircraft carrier INS Viraat. The order comes on a plea filed by a firm that had proposed to turn the vessel into a museum.
• Envitech Marine Consultants Pvt. Ltd had approached the apex court after the Ministry of Defence (MoD) had turned down its proposal to convert the decommissioned aircraft carrier into a museum.
• INS Viraat was beached on September 28 at Alang, after numerous attempts to convert the carrier into a museum failed.
• Commissioned in the British Navy in 1959 as HMS Hermes, INS Viraat was inducted into the Indian Navy in 1986-87.
• In a last-ditch bid, a private company, Envitech Marine Consultants Pvt Ltd, offered to buy INS Viraat from the Shree Ram Group and convert it into a museum.

• A World Health Organization (WHO) investigation in China has found that the coronavirus most likely jumped to humans through an animal host or frozen wildlife products.
• Earlier there were assumptions and allegations that the virus was probably leaked from a virus lab in Wuhan city, that had prompted a study.
• The team studied tens of thousands of patient samples from Wuhan prior to the emergence of sick people in 2019. There was no evidence of significant outbreaks in China before December 2019.

• Y S Sharmila, sister of YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, has announced her plans to launch a new political party in Telangana to establish a welfare state.
• For the last few days, there have been speculations on social media groups of the YSRC about Sharmila’s plans to launch a new political outfit exclusively in Telangana, independent of her brother Jagan’s party, which is currently in power in Andhra Pradesh.
• Sharmila had briefly helmed the YSR Congress when her brother was in jail for 16 months after his arrest in May 2012.

• Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR) have developed a new variety of Marigoldthat can give full value even if they get spoilt after full bloom as they can be used for extraction of crude carotene.
• All marigolds have carotene content that ranges up to a maximum of 1.4%. The Arka Shubha variety of marigold has high carotene content of 2.8% which is the highest content from plant source.
• As carotene is mainly used in pharmaceutical sector, there is always a high demand for it. Presently, India imports most of its carotene from other countries, including China.

• Senior most member of the Legislative Council and Janata Dal (Secular) leader Basavaraj Horatti was elected unanimously as the Chairman of the upper house.
• While JD (S) members K.T. Srikante Gowda and Thippeswamy proposed the name of seven time MLC Basavaraj Horatti for the post of chairman, the Congress members M. Narayanswamy and B.K. Hariprasad refused to propose the name of Nazeer Ahmed.
• The election to the chairman's post had been necessitated after K. Prathapchandra Shetty tendered his resignation following the no confidence motion moved by BJP and JD (S).