July 27th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Dholavira, the Harappan City 2. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) 3. Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Unnat Krishi Shiksha Yojana (PDDUUKSY) 4. United Nations Food Systems Summit 5. Marine Aids to Navigation Bill 2021 6. National Commission For De-Notified And Nomadic Tribes 7. National Organ Transplant Programme (NOTP) 8. Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB)
1. Dholavira, the Harappan City
Context:
Dholavira, the Harappan City in the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
Background:
- India submitted the nomination dossier for Dholavira: A Harappan City to the World Heritage Centre in January 2020.
- The site was on the UNESCO’s tentative list since 2014.
- Dholavira: a Harappan city, is one of the very few well preserved urban settlements in South Asia dating from the 3rd to mid-2nd millennium BCE.
What’s in the News?
- With the inscription of Dholavira, India gets its 40th World Heritage Site. Get a list of the Indian sites in the World Heritage List in the link.
- Now, India boasts of 32 cultural, 7 natural and one mixed property in the list.
- India joins a handful of countries including Italy, Spain, Germany, China and France that have 40 or more sites inscribed in the list.
About the Harappan city of Dholavira:
- Dholavira is the 6th-largest of more than 1,000 Harappan sites discovered so far.
- It demonstrates multifaceted achievements in terms of urban planning, construction techniques, water management, social governance and development, art, manufacturing, trading, and belief system.
- With extremely rich artefacts, the well preserved urban settlement of Dholavira depicts a vivid picture of a regional centre with its distinct characteristics that also contributes significantly to the existing knowledge of Harappan Civilization as a whole.
- The property comprises two parts: a walled city and a cemetery to the west of the city.
- The walled city consists of a fortified castle with attached fortified Bailey and Ceremonial Ground, and a fortified Middle Town and a Lower Town.
- A series of reservoirs are found to the east and south of the Citadel.
- The great majority of the burials in the Cemetery are memorial in nature.
- Unlike other Harappan antecedent towns normally located near rivers and perennial sources of water, the location of Dholavira in the island of Khadir was strategic to harness different mineral and raw material sources (copper, shell, agate-carnelian, steatite, lead, banded limestone, among others) and to facilitate internal as well as external trade to the Magan (modern Oman peninsula) and Mesopotamian regions.
- A classic example of a proto-historic Bronze Age urban settlement pertaining to the Harappan civilisation, Dholavira bears evidence of a multi-cultural and stratified society.
- While the earliest evidence can be traced back to 3000 BCE, this city flourished for nearly 1,500 years, representing a long continuous habitation.
- Dholavira also showcases an excellent water conservation and management method quite unique to the ancient world.
Also read: Indus Valley Civilization – Major Sites
2. Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)
Context:
CRPF Raising Day.
To know more about CRPF, please check the article Security Forces & Agencies in India.
3. Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Unnat Krishi Shiksha Yojana (PDDUUKSY)
About PDDUUKSY:
- Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Unnat Krishi Shiksha Yojana (PDDUUKSY) was launched to develop human resource in organic farming, natural farming and cow based economy for environmental sustenance and soil health.
- It was started with the establishment of 100 centres. Under this scheme, 108 training programmes were organized for the awareness of the farmers during the period of operation.
- Scheme objectives:
- To build skilled Human Resource at village level relevant to national needs towards organic farming and sustainable agriculture.
- Provide rural India with professional support in the field of Organic Farming/Natural Farming/Rural Economy/Sustainable Agriculture.
- To extend other activities of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Unnat Krishi Shiksha Yojana at village level through these established centres.
- The scheme was launched in 2016 and is an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare being implemented by the Education wing of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
4. United Nations Food Systems Summit
Context:
Pre-Summit Ministerial Roundtable of United Nations Food Systems Summit held.
About the UN Food Systems Summit:
- The UN Food Systems Summit aims to launch bold new actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food, as part of the Decade of Action to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
- Guided by five Action Tracks, the Summit will bring together key players from the worlds of science, business, policy, healthcare and academia, as well as farmers, indigenous people, youth organizations, consumer groups, environmental activists, and other key stakeholders.
- Action Track 1: Ensure access to safe and nutritious food for all
- Action Track 2: Shift to sustainable consumption patterns
- Action Track 3: Boost nature-positive production
- Action Track 4: Advance equitable livelihoods
- Action Track 5: Build resilience to vulnerabilities, shocks and stress
- The pre-summit is taking place on 27 – 28 July 2021 at Rome, Italy. The summit itself would be held in September 2021.
5. Marine Aids to Navigation Bill 2021
Context:
Parliament passes landmark ‘Marine Aids to Navigation Bill 2021’ to repeal and replace the Lighthouse Act 1927.
Know more about the Marine Aids to Navigation Bill 2021 in Marine Aids to Navigation Bill 2021: RSTV – Big Picture.
6. National Commission For De-Notified And Nomadic Tribes
About the Commission:
- The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment had constituted the National Commission For De-Notified And Nomadic Tribes to study various developmental aspects of denotified and nomadic or semi-nomadic tribes in India.
- The commission was first set up in 2003 and then reconstituted later on.
- Terms of reference of the commission:
- To specify the economic interventions required for raising the living standards of Denotified, Nomadic and Semi Nomadic Tribes by asset creation and self-employment opportunities.
- To recommend measures to utilize the existing channelling agencies set up for the economic development of SC/STs and OBCs for extending an economic development package to these groups, keeping in view their specific requirements.
- To identify programmes required for their education, development and health.
- To make any other connected or incidental recommendation, that the Commission deems necessary.
Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNT Communities (SEED):
- The Department for Social Justice and Empowerment is also implementing the Scheme for Economic Empowerment of DNT Communities (SEED).
- Components of SEED:
- To provide coaching of good quality for DNT candidates to enable them to appear in competitive examinations.
- To provide health insurance to them.
- To facilitate livelihood initiative at community level; and
- To provide financial assistance for construction of houses for members of these communities.
Context:
This information was given by the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in the Lok Sabha in a written reply.
7. National Organ Transplant Programme (NOTP)
About the Programme:
- The Government of India is implementing the National Organ Transplant Programme (NOTP) to promote organ donation and transplantation across all States/Union Territories.
- The provisions under the programme include:
- Setting up of State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisations (SOTTOs) in each State/UT.
- Setting up of National/Regional/State Bio-material centres.
- Financial support for establishing new Organ Transplant/retrieval facilities and strengthening of existing Organ Transplant/retrieval facilities.
- Training to transplant experts including surgeons, physicians, transplant coordinators, etc.
- Financial support for hiring of Transplant Coordinators to medical colleges and trauma centres.
- Post-transplant immune-suppressant drugs to Below Poverty Line (BPL) patients.
- The Transplantation of Human Organs Act (THOA), 1994 was enacted to provide a system of removal, storage and transplantation of human organs for therapeutic purposes and for the prevention of commercial dealings in human organs.
- The scheme is under the Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India.
Context:
Indian astronomers on team which spotted shortest Gamma-Ray Bursts from dying star.
Details:
- A group of astronomers, including from India, has detected a very short, powerful burst of high-energy radiation that lasted for about a second and had been racing towards the earth for nearly half the present age of the universe.
- The burst detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope on August 26, 2020 turned out to be the shortest gamma-ray burst (GRB) caused by the death of a massive star.
- The GRB has been named GRB 200826A, after the date on which it occurred.
- GRB 200826A was a sharp blast of high-energy emission lasting just 0.65 seconds. After travelling for eons through the expanding universe, the signal had stretched out to about one second long when it was detected by Fermi’s Gamma-ray Burst Monitor.
About Gamma Ray Bursts:
- GRBs are the most powerful events in the universe, detectable across billions of light-years.
- Astronomers classify them as long or short based on whether the event lasts for more or less than two seconds.
- GRBs are immensely energetic explosions that have been observed in distant galaxies.
- They are the brightest and most energetic electromagnetic events known to occur in the universe.
- The intense radiation of most observed GRBs is thought to be released during a supernova or superluminous supernova as a high-mass star implodes to form a neutron star or a black hole.
- All observed GRBs have originated from outside the Milky Way galaxy, although a related class of phenomena, soft gamma repeater flares, are associated with magnetars within the Milky Way.
- It has been hypothesized that a gamma-ray burst in the Milky Way, pointing directly towards the Earth, could cause a mass extinction event
- GRBs were first detected in 1967.
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July 27th, 2021, PIB:- Download PDF Here
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