National Culture Fund has completed 52 projects with various donors since its inception

• Government of India has set up National Culture Fund (NCF) as a Trust on 28th November, 1996 under the Charitable Endowment Act, 1890.
• NCF is managed by a (Governing) Council and an Executive Committee.
• The Council is chaired by the Union Minister of Culture and has a strength of 21 including 15 non-official members representing various fields including corporate sector, private foundations and not-for-profit voluntary organizations.
• The aim of National Culture Fund (NCF) is to establish and nurture partnerships in the field of Culture and Heritage with private and public sectors, government, non-government agencies, private institutions and foundations and mobilize resources for the restoration, conservation, protection and development of India’s rich, natural, tangible and intangible heritage.

''Tribal'' status for Himachal''s Trans-Giri region on cards

• The demand to declare Trans-Giri a tribal area is old — and is tied up with the demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for the Hatti community which lives in the area.
• The Hattis are a close-knit community who take their name from their traditional occupation of selling home-grown crops, vegetables, meat, and wool at small-town markets known as ‘haats’.
• Hatti men traditionally don a distinctive white headgear on ceremonial occasions.
• The Hatti homeland straddles the Himachal-Uttarakhand border in the basin of the Giri and Tons rivers, both tributaries of the Yamuna. The Tons marks the border between the two states, and the Hattis living in the Trans-Giri area in today’s Himachal Pradesh and Jaunsar Bawar in Uttarakhand were once part of the royal estate of Sirmaur. Jaunsar Bawar was conquered by the British in 1814.
• The two Hatti clans, in Trans-Giri and Jaunsar Bawar, have similar traditions, and inter-marriages are common.

1.63 lakh Indians relinquish Indian citizenship in 2021

• The number of Indians who relinquished Indian Citizenship in 2019 and 2020 are 1,44,017; 85,256 respectively. A maximum of 78,284 Indians relinquished Indian Citizenship and received citizenship of the USA followed by 23,533 who took citizenship in Australia; 21,597 in Canada; and 14,637 in the UK in 2021.
• Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai on Tuesday shared the data with the Lok Sabha that mentions "the number of Indians who relinquished Indian Citizenship in 2019, 2020, 2021 are 1,44,017; 85,256; and 1,63,370 respectively".
• Asked about the reasons given by these persons for renouncing Indian citizenship, Rai said "individuals renounced Indian citizenship for reasons personal to them".
• The data provided by the Minister mentions that there are 103 countries where Indians relinquished Indian citizenship.

Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan

• The Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment said, there has been a change in the pattern of substance abuse as reflected in the National survey of Extent, Pattern and Trends of Substance Use done in 2004 and in the Comprehensive National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use in India conducted in 2018.
• He said, under ''Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan'', special emphasis is laid on the participation of stakeholders such as women, children, educational institutions and civil society organizations.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port becomes first 100 per cent Landlord Major Port of India having all berths being operated on PPP model

• Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said, this project will improve the utilization in crane and berth productivity of the terminal.
• The total handling of JNPT will increase to 1.8 million Twenty-foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) from the present handling capacity of 1.5 million TEUs in 2020-21.
• The Minister said terminal will also be handling Ro-Ro vessels which will not only lower the logistics cost and reduce transit time but will also contribute in reducing congestion on roads and promoting towards clean environment.

Govt not contemplating legislative measures for population control

• This was stated by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Bharati Praveen Pawar in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.
• The Minister said, the government accords top priority to the National Family Planning Programme with the objective of attaining Population Stabilization by the year 2045.
• She said, the government’s efforts have been successful in reining in the growth of population and the Total Fertility Rate has declined to 2.0 in 2019-21.
• Pawar said, contraceptive usage has also increased to 56.5 percent in the country and The Crude Birth Rate has declined to 19.7 in 2019.

EAM S Jaishankar moves Weapons of Mass Destruction Amendment Bill

• The bill seeks to amend the Weapons of Mass Destruction and their Delivery Systems (Prohibition of Unlawful Activities) Act, 2005.
• The 2005 Act prohibits unlawful activities such as manufacturing, transport, or transfer related to weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.
• Weapons of mass destruction are biological, chemical, or nuclear weapons. The bill bars persons from financing any prohibited activity related to weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems.
• The house could not take up discussion on the bill due to the opposition''s protest over the inflation and GST hike.

Weekly Iron Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS)

• The government has provided four crore 14 lakh Iron Folic Acid Supplementation to Adolescents under the Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) Programme in the last financial year.
• The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.
• Pawar highlighted that over seven thousand Adolescent Friendly Health Clinics have been established in the country and fifty-two lakh Adolescent clients received counseling and clinical services during 2021-22.
• The Minister stressed that the Scheme for Promotion of Menstrual Hygiene is implemented to promote menstrual hygiene among adolescent girls in the age group of 10-19 years. He said, nearly thirty-five lakh adolescent girls have been covered every month under this scheme.

Work from home allowed for maximum one year in special economic zone: Commerce Ministry

• The notification was issued on demand from the industry for making a provision for a country-wide uniform Work From Home policy across all Special Economic Zones.
• As per the new notification, Work from Home may be extended to maximum 50 percent of total employees including contractual employees of the unit.
• There is flexibility granted to Development Commissioner of Special Economic Zones to approve a higher number of employees for any bona-fide reason to be recorded in writing. Work From Home is now allowed for a maximum period of one year.
• However, it may be further extended for a period of one year at a time by the Development Commissioner at the request of units.