Study in India programme

• The “Study in India’ is an innovative initiative to attract students from our partner countries in South Asia, South-East Asia, Middle East and Africa to come and experience the very best of academic learning from the top institutions in India.
• NIRF ranked and NAAC accredited institutions with a 3.26 score have been included in the programme.
• The Study in India programme is a joint initiative of Ministry of HRD, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• The integration of e-SANAD portal and NAD – National Academic Depository (of HRD Ministry), was also launched by government.

e-Sanad 

• It is a project aimed at online submission/verification of documents with an ultimate object to extend contact less, cashless, faceless and paperless document attestation service for apostille and normal attestation to applicants in India.

National Academic Depository (NAD)

• National Academic Depository (NAD) is an online store house of all academic awards viz. certificates, diplomas, degrees, mark-sheets etc. duly digitised and lodged by academic institutions / boards / eligibility assessment bodies.

Sea turtles

• Sometimes called marine turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines.
• The majority of a sea turtle’s body is protected by its shell. The turtle’s shell is divided into two sections: the carapace (the dorsal portion) and the plastron (the ventral portion). The shell is made up of smaller plates called scutes. The leatherback is the only sea turtle that does not have a hard shell. Instead, it bears a mosaic of bony plates beneath its leathery skin.
• Sea turtles can be found in oceans except for the polar regions. The flatback sea turtle is found solely on the northern coast of Australia. The Kemp’s ridley sea turtle is found solely in the Gulf of Mexico and along the East Coast of the United States.
• The IUCN Red List classifies three species of sea turtle as either “Endangered” or “Critically Endangered”.
• All species of sea turtle are listed in CITESAppendix I, restricting international trade of sea turtles and sea turtle products.

Scandinavian countries

• The term Scandinavia in local usage covers the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden.

Nordic Countries

• The Nordic countries or the Nordics are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe and the North Atlantic, where they are most commonly known as Norden (literally “the North”).
• After inclusion of the Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland and Iceland in Scandinavian countries, the broader region is known as Nordic countries.

FIEO Global Linker

• The Minister of Commerce & Industry Shri Suresh Prabhu launched the “FIEO Global Linker”- a digital platform for MSME exporters to digitise their businesses and join a global community of growing businesses.
• Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) will help in expanding India’s multi-focused export strategy and also aid in connecting art and artisans to the market.

Benefits of the Portal-

(a) Business Opportunities, (b) Improved Efficiencies

The Pathalgadi rebellion

• Many Adivasi villages in Jharkhand have put up giant plaques, declaring their gram sabha as the only sovereign authority and banning ‘outsiders’ from their area.
• The villages spread across four districts in the State, namely Khunti, Gumla, Simdega and West Singhbhum have come up with Pathalgadi (huge stone plaques) at the entry points of tribal hamlets which have messages engraved on them including warnings for outsiders, prohibiting them from entering the village.

About Pathalgadi

• In Munda tribal custom, Patthalgari is actually a tradition in which villagers use to burry a large inverted U shaped stone on the head side of grave or simply put, it is a headstone in which family tree of the dead person was written.
• The Pathalgadi movement draws on this tradition of honouring the community’s ancestors.
• Activists say that the movement derives inspiration from the provisions of the PESA.
• The leaders of the movement decided to carve the key provisions of the PESA as messages on huge stones in order to enlighten Adivasi people about this law, which empowered a village as an administrative unit.

PESA (Panchayats Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996

• The PESA Act, 1996 is a law enacted by the Government of India for ensuring self-governance through traditional Gram Sabha’s for people living in the Scheduled Areas of India.
• Scheduled Areas are areas identified by the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India.
• Scheduled Areas are found in ten states of India which have predominant population of tribal communities.
• The Scheduled Areas, were not covered by the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.

Global Innovation Fund

• The Global Innovation Fund is a non-profit innovation fund headquartered in London with an office in Washington D.C. that invests in the development, rigorous testing, and scaling of innovations targeted at improving the lives of the world’s poorest people.
• The innovations they fund can be located in any developing country and can focus on any sector relevant to international development and improve the lives of the poor people.

Hope spots

• In 2013 Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep islands were named as the “hope spots”.
• This recognition was given by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Mission Blue, an organization involved in the study of oceans.
• A Hope Spot is any special place that is critical to the health of the ocean—Earth‘s blue heart.
• It is an area of an ocean that needs special protection because of its wildlife and significant underwater habitats.
• The two groups of islands are the first places in India to have been added in the list of global hope spots.

DARPAN-PLI App

• Minister of Communications launched the DARPAN-PLI App recently.
• It will help in collection of premium for Postal Life Insurance and Rural Postal Life Insurance policies at Branch Post Offices anywhere in India, with online updation of the policies.
• Department of Posts has launched Digital Advancement of Rural Post Office for a New India (DARPAN) Project.
• The project aims at connecting all 1.29 lakh Rural Branch Post Offices in the country to enable them to do online Postal and Financial Transactions.
• The Hand-held devices are installed under DARPAN Project SIM connectivity and solar power backup at all Branch Post Offices.
• It will ensure improvement in the quality of Postal services being offered in remote rural areas.
• Postal Life Insurance is the oldest Life Insurance in the country.
• Rural Postal Life Insurance, in fact, is meant for anyone who has a rural address, for instance rural migrant workers.

Geomagnetic imprinting

• According to a new study, sea turtles use the Earth’s magnetic fields to navigate back to the area where they were born decades earlier.
• The new study used loggerhead turtle genetics to investigate their travels.
• Geomagnetic imprinting is the ability of turtles to learn their home beach’s distinctive magnetic signature.
• The turtles can perceive both the magnetic field’s intensity and its inclination angle.
• Inclination angle is the angle that the magnetic field lines make with respect to the Earth’s surface.
• The variation in Earth’s magnetic field around the nesting area seems to really predict genetic differentiation much better than geographic distance.
• The current study is based on genetic data, not experimental evidence.

Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts

• Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) under the aegis of Development Commissioner (Handicrafts), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India is a non-profit organization, established under the EXIM policy of Government of India in the year 1986-87.
• The objective is to promote, support, protect, maintain and increase the export of handicrafts. 
• It is an apex body of handicrafts exporters for promotion of exports of Handicrafts from country.
• The Council has created necessary infrastructure as well as marketing and information facilities, which are availed both by the members exporters and importers.
• The Council is engaged in promotion of handicrafts from India and project India’s image abroad as a reliable supplier of high quality handicrafts.

VRIKSH:

• ” VRIKSH ” is a program by EPCH which is totally based on the timber legality assessment and verification standard for verification of legality and legal origin of wood and wooden products. It is intended for entities who want to accurately track and make claims about the legal origin and transport of their products.
• The VRIKSH standard conforms to all major compliance requirements including the new CITES notification.
• To fulfil the obligation, the Vriksh shipment certificate, issued exclusively by EPCH is mandatory to go along with all shipments of two Dalbergia’s species (Rosewood and Sheesham) products.

Commonwealth Innovation Index:

• The index has been created in partnership with the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and its annual Global Innovation Index (GII).
• It is aimed at providing a tool that allows member states, organisations and citizens to benchmark themselves against 53 countries of the Commonwealth, with the new innovation hub offering a dedicated online space for Commonwealth countries to showcase what they have to offer and share with other members.
• India is ranked 10^th.
• The index is topped by the UK, Singapore and Canada.