Notes:
Myanmar has risen to become the world’s largest producer of opium in 2023, surpassing Taliban-ruled Afghanistan which had launched a major crackdown on poppy cultivation since early 2022. As per data by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Myanmar produced an estimated 1,080 metric tonnes of opium this year used to produce heroin. Meanwhile, Afghanistan saw production levels fall by 95% to just 330 tonnes after the Islamist Taliban rulers banned poppy farming citing it un-Islamic. The expansion of the illegal opiate economy in strife-torn Myanmar is attributed to the growing instability and conflict in the country since the 2021 coup.

Notes:
PABS stands for Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing System. It is mentioned in Article 10 of the draft pandemic treaty, which asks member countries to establish a multilateral system for access and benefit sharing under PABS. The PABS Standard Material Transfer Agreement shall include a monetary obligation whereby 10% of vaccines and antivirals would be provided to WHO at affordable prices during a pandemic. While developing countries agreed in principle, they sought clarity on its governance and raised doubts if it would disincentivize small vaccine makers that played a key role during COVID-19.

Notes:
Captain Fatima Wasim created history by becoming the first woman medical officer to be deployed at an operational post in the world’s highest battlefield, the Siachen Glacier. After rigorous training at the Siachen Battle School, she was inducted to a post at Partapur sector at an altitude of 15,200 feet in the Union Territory of Ladakh. Her posting is seen as a major milestone for women empowerment in the armed forces.

Notes:
The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC) is a prominent capacity-building initiative by the Ministry Of External Affairs of the Government of India. Established in 1964, ITEC is one of the longest-standing international capacity-building programs, having trained over 200,000 officials from more than 160 countries in both civilian and defense sectors. Under this programme, recently India and Taiwan have been focussing on collaboration in cutting edge tech areas like 5G, AI, information security, semiconductors etc. ITEC is administered by the Development Partnership Administration-II Division of the Ministry of External Affairs.

Notes:
Researchers from Berhampur University in Odisha discovered a new species of marine amphipod in Chilika Lake, which was named Demaorchestia alanensis after renowned crustacean taxonomy expert, Professor Alan Myers. Very little is known about amphipods around the Indian coasts and their ecological roles. The new discovery takes the number of known Demaorchestia species globally to six. It will help study the impact of climate change on coastal ecosystems by analyzing these bioindicator organisms.