Parasitic plant ‘Gleadovia konyakianorum’ found in Nagaland has no chlorophyll of its own

• Scientists have discovered a new species of parasitic flowering plant that has no chlorophyll, and survives by feeding on another species of plant that does (chlorophyll helps a plant make its own food using sunlight).
• The species, named Gleadovia konyakianorum, in honour of the Konyak tribe of Nagas, was identified during a botanical exploration earlier this year near Tobu town of Mon district in eastern Nagaland.
• It is a holoparasite (complete parasite) that derives its entire nutritional requirement from the host plant, which is a Strobilanthes species.
• The plant was found in the semi-evergreen forest.
• Though it is has no chlorophyll, the plant has a vascular system and extracts its nutrition from the host plant with the help of a haustorium.

• This is only the fourth species from the genus Gleadovia to be found in the world.
• The other three are Gleadovia banerjiana (discovered in Manipur), Gleadovia mupinense (found in China) and Gleadovia ruborum (discovered in Uttarakhand and also reported from China).

• A credit rating is an assessment of the creditworthiness of a borrower.
• Individuals, corporations and governments are assigned credit ratings — whoever wants to borrow money.
• Individuals are given ‘credit scores’, while corporations and governments receive ‘credit ratings’.
• A country requests a credit rating agency to evaluate its economic and political environment and arrive at a rating. This is done to position itself as a destination for foreign direct investment.
• For the first time in 14 years, Moody's has upgraded India's rating to Baa2, a term that means that they consider the economy stable.

• These are political risk, taxation, currency value and labour laws.
• Another is sovereign risk where a country's central bank can change its foreign exchange regulations. These risks are taken into account and ratings assigned accordingly.

• India has moved up one position to 126th in terms of GDP per capita of countries.
• However, it is still ranked lower than all its BRICS peers, while Qatar remains the world’s richest, as per International Monetary Fund data.
• India has seen its per capita GDP rise to $7,170 in 2017, from $6,690 last year, helping improve its rank by one slot.
• Qatar remains top-ranked with per capita GDP of $1,24,930
• The data, which forms part of the latest World Economic Outlook report of the International Monetary Fund, ranks over 200 countries in terms of per capita GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP).

• PPP between two countries is the rate at which the currency of one country needs to be converted into that of a second country to ensure that a given amount of the first country’s currency will purchase the same volume of goods and services in the second country as it does in the first.

• Total value of all final goods and services produced within the geographical boundary of the country during a particular period (Generally one year).
• In this we considered all produce by both resident citizens and foreign nationals who reside within the boundary of that country.

• Total value of the final goods and services produced by Indians in India as well as in abroad during a particular period.
• In this we include resident and non-resident citizens of a country whereas income of foreigners who reside in India Excluded.

• It is calculated by deducting depreciation from Gross National Product (GNP)
• NNP = GNP – Depreciation
  Note-
  Factor Cost- Cost incurred to produce goods and service
  Market price- For calculating market price we add Indirect taxes and deduct subsidies given by government in Factor cost.
  Market Price = Factor cost + Indirect Taxes – Subsidy
• NNP at factor cost = NNP at market price – Indirect taxes + subsidy
• Usually, we called NNP at factor cost as National Income.

• Former prime minister Manmohan Singh will receive the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development this year for his leadership of the country between 2004 and 2014 and for enhancing India’s stature globally.
• This was announced by Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

• The international award named after former prime minister Indira Gandhi was instituted in 1986.
• The last two recipients have been the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the UN High Commission for Refugees.

• The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has decided to cancel the $500 million deal for Spike ATGM (Anti-Tank Guided Missile) with Israel.
• The deal was signed with Rafael Advanced Defence Systems of Israel last year.
• In anticipation of this deal, Rafael had entered into a joint venture with Kalyani group for missile production in India.
• The missile sub-systems manufacturing facility, based near Hyderabad, was inaugurated in August.
• The decision to cancel the deal was based on the consideration that importing a foreign ATGM at this stage would adversely impact the programme for indigenous development of the weapon system by DRDO.
• DRDO has successfully produced the Nag and Anamika ATGMs.
• The Army is currently using 2nd generation ATGMs — Konkurs and Milan 2T — which do not have night-fighting capabilities.

• Spike MR missile is a 3rd generation, fire and forget, top attack, ATGM with a range of 2.5 km, which can operate both during the day and night.

• It is an Israeli defense technology company.
• Rafael develops and produces weapons, military, and defense technologies for the Israel Defense Forces and for export abroad.

• Drought-resistant plants such as cacti and succulents, make use of an enhanced form of photosynthesis to minimise water loss.
• Photosynthesis involves taking carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to convert into sugars using sunlight.
• These drought-resistant plants, such as cacti, agaves and succulents, make use of an enhanced form of photosynthesis known as crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM).
• Unlike other plants, CAM plants are able to take up CO2 during the cooler night, which reduces water loss, and store captured CO2 as malic acid inside the cell, allowing its use for photosynthesis without water loss during the next day.
• CAM photosynthesis is regulated by the plant’s internal circadian clock, which allows plants to differentiate and pre-empt day and night and adjust their metabolism accordingly.
• Researchers looked at an enzyme called PPCK that is involved in controlling the conversion of CO2 to its overnight stored form.

• World’s biggest toilet pot model was unveiled at Marora, popularly known as the ‘Trump village’, in Haryana on the World Toilet Day on November 19, in a bid to create awareness towards sanitation and use of toilets.