Notes:
Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda has recently launched a new e-portal named ‘Swasthya’ and a e-newsletter named ALEKH.
The portal aims to consolidate all health and nutrition related information of the tribal population of India. It also provides best practices collected from different parts of India and enables an effective decision making related to the nutrition of tribal population.

Notes:
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently approved a new rapid saliva test to detect Covid-19 named ‘Saliva Direct’.
The new inexpensive test uses only saliva samples instead of the nasal and throat swabs to detect the coronavirus samples. As per the administration, the test also has higher sensitivity when compared to the usual methods of testing.

Notes:
The strategic tunnel under the Rohtang Pass was named after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in December last year.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur has recently announced that the ‘Atal Tunnel’ in Rohtang would be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi by September 2020. The 8.8-km long tunnel will be the longest tunnel among those in the world above an altitude of 3000 metres.

Notes:
IPS officer Rakesh Asthana has been appointed as the Director General of Border Security Force (BSF). The incumbent head RK Shukla is set to retire in February 2020.
Prior to this appointment, he was the head of the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security since January 2019. SS Deswal is set to replace him in the said post. Asthana was a 1984-batch IPS Officer and a former official of the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Notes:
Considered as extinct over seventy years back, the Woolly flying squirrel was spotted at Gangotri National Park in Uttarakhand.
As per the Forest Research Institute, the flying squirrel was added in the IUCN Red List. It was spotted during the survey conducted in the national park. The animal uses its wool-like furry claws like a parachute and fly.