Central Vista''s certified workmen awarded under NIPUN scheme organized by NAREDCO

• It is an innovative project for the skill training of construction workers.
• It is an initiative of the Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) under its flagship scheme of the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM).
• Objective: To train over 1 lakh construction workers through fresh skilling and upskilling programmes and provides them with work opportunities in foreign countries
• The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), the nodal agency under the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), Government of India, will be the Implementation Partner for the project NIPUN.
• The project implementation is divided into three parts:
  • training through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) at construction sites;
  • training through Fresh Skilling by Plumbing and Infrastructure Sector Skill Council (SSC);
  • International Placement through industries/ builders/ contractors;
• The courses are aligned with National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and will be imparted at accredited and affiliated training centres.
• It will provide trainees with ''Kaushal Bima'', three-year accidental insurance with coverage of Rs 2 lakhs.

Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM)

• It is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, being implemented since 2014-15.
• Implementing ministry: Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation.
• Coverage: The scheme covers all 4041 statutory cities and towns.
• Objectives:
  • To reduce poverty and vulnerability of the urban poor households by enabling them to access gainful self-employment and skilled wage employment opportunities.
  • Providing the shelter equipped with essential services to the urban homeless in a phased manner.
  • Providing suitable space, institutional credit, and social security and skills to the urban street vendor for accessing emerging market opportunities.India''s first cable-stayed rail bridge on Anji river in J-K nears completion; deck to be ready by May
• It is an under-construction railway bridge in the Reasi district of Jammu and Kashmir.
• It will be the first cable-stayed railway bridge in India.
• It forms a part of the Udhampur Srinagar Baramulla Rail Link Project (USBRL) connecting Katra and Reasi Station on the Jammu-Baramulla line.
• Features:
  • It is an asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge balanced on the axis of a central pylon, and it has tunnels on both ends.
  • The cable-stayed portion of the Anji bridge is 472.25 metres, while the total length of the bridge is 725.5 metres, which is divided into four parts, including an embankment.
  • The central span of the bridge is 290 metres; its total deck width will be 15 metres.
  • It stands at the height of 331 metres above the Anji river bed.
  • Trains can run up to 100km/h, and the bridge can withstand wind speeds up to 213 km/hr.

Ibisbill, the poorly understood Himalayan waterbird faces threats, finds study

• It is a bird which belongs to the family Ibidorhynchidae. It is the only species in this family.
• It is a charismatic and uncommon wader seen in the Himalayas and foothills of India.
• Scientific Name: bidorhyncha struthersii
• Distribution:
  • They are common in Central Asia and the Himalayas.
  • They are found in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar and China.
• Habitat:
  • It lives at high altitudes near rivers.
  • They exhibit altitudinal migration, breeding in the higher reaches of the mountains and descending to lower elevations during winters.
• Features:
  • It is a medium-sized wader, measuring 38 to 42 cm in length and weighing 270 to 320 grams.
  • It has a long, downward curved and sharply-pointed pink bill; a grey body; a white belly with a black band on its chest; and a black face.
  • The sexes are similar, which makes this species monomorphic as well.
  • They are good swimmers.
• Conservation Status:
  • IUCN: Least Concern

Centre has decided to decrease disturbed areas in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur: Amit Shah

About Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA):

• It is a law enacted by the Parliament which gives armed forces (Army, the Air Force and Central paramilitary forces) the special powers and immunity to maintain public order in “disturbed areas”.
• When is it applied? It can be applied only after an area has been declared “disturbed” under section 2 of the act.
• What is a Disturbed area? An area can be considered to be disturbed due to differences or disputes among different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities.
• Who declares an area as disturbed? Section (3) of AFSPA empowers the governor of the state/Union territory to issue an official notification declaring the state or a region within as a “disturbed area”, after which the centre can decide whether to send in armed forces.
• The ‘special powers’ of armed forces under Section 4 are:
  • Power to use force even to the extent of causing death, destroy arms / ammunition dumps, fortifications/ shelters / hideouts.
  • Power to arrest without a warrant.
  • Power to seize and search’ without any warrant any premise.
  • It stipulates that arrested persons and seized property is to be handed over to the nearest Police Station with least possible delay.
  • These armed forces are immune from prosecution unless Union Government provides sanction to the prosecuting agencies.

Parole days cannot be counted as part of sentence period

• Parole is a system of releasing a prisoner with a suspension of the sentence.
• The release is conditional, usually subject to behaviour, and requires periodic reporting to the authorities for a set period of time.
• It is not a right of a prisoner and may be denied to a prisoner even when he makes out a sufficient case.

Furlough

• A broadly similar but subtly different concept is a furlough, which is given in the case of long-term imprisonment.
• While furlough is seen as a matter of right, to be granted periodically irrespective of any reason and merely to enable the prisoner to retain family and social ties,
• Furlough is given by the state, but its decision can be challenged before a court of law.

Amit Shah inaugurated Vedic Heritage portal in New Delhi

• It is developed by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts
• The portal will be a one-stop solution for the user, who would like to search for any information regarding the Vedic heritage.
• The audio-visual recording of four Vedas has been uploaded on the Vedic Heritage portal. The portal has over 18 thousand mantras of the four Vedas with a duration of over 550 hours.
• The objective of the portal: To secure knowledge from ancient scriptures and manuscripts for future generations through technology.

Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts

• It was established in 1987 as an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Culture, as a centre for research, academic pursuit, and dissemination in the field of the arts.
• It has a trust (Board of Trustees), which meets regularly to give general direction about the Centre’s work. The Executive Committee, drawn from among the Trustees, functions under a Chairman.

Almost half of school children get free meals, report shows, but most vulnerable still miss out amid global food crisis

World Food Programme

• World Food Programme is a branch of the United Nations that deals with hunger eradication and promotes food security in the world.
• It is a member of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
• It is operating in more than 120 countries, which provides food assistance during emergencies and works with communities to enhance nutrition and generate resilience.
• It has been functioning in India since 1963.
• Funding: WFP is funded by voluntary donations from governments, corporates and private donors.
• Report released by the WFP is Global Report on Food Crisis
  • The Global Report on Food Crises describes the scale of acute hunger in the world.
  • It provides an analysis of the drivers that are contributing to food crises across the globe.
  • The report is produced by the Global Network against Food Crises, an international alliance working to address the root causes of extreme hunger.

NASA prepares for the historic sample transfer from asteroid Bennu by OSIRIS-REx

OSIRIS-Rex Mission:

• The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security - Regolith Explorer was launched by NASA in 2016 for the journey to Bennu.
• The spacecraft travelled to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu and bring back a sample to Earth for study.
• The mission will help scientists investigate how planets formed and how life began, as well as improve our understanding of asteroids that could impact Earth.

Asteroid Bennu

• It is located about 200 million miles away from the Earth.
• It was discovered by a team from the NASA-funded Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research team in 1999.
• It is a B-type asteroid, implying that it contains significant amounts of carbon and various other minerals.
• Around 20-40 percent of Bennu’s interior is empty space and scientists believe that it was formed in the first 10 million years of the solar system’s creation, implying that it is roughly 4.5 billion years old.
• Bennu is believed to have been born in the Main Asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter and because of gravitational tugs from other celestial objects and the slight push asteroids get when they release absorbed sunlight, the asteroid is coming closer to Earth.

Shri Bhupender Yadav launches Aravalli Green Wall Project

• The project is a major initiative to green the 5 km buffer area around Aravalli Hill.
• The Aravalli Green Wall Project is part of the Union Environment Ministry''s vision to create green corridors across the country to combat land degradation and desertification.
• The project covers the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Delhi - where the Aravalli hills landscape span over 6 million hectares of land.
• The project will involve planting native species of trees and shrubs on scrubland, wasteland and degraded forest land, along with rejuvenating and restoring surface water bodies such as ponds, lakes and streams.
• The project will also focus on agroforestry and pasture development to enhance the livelihoods of local communities.
• Some of the objectives of the Project:
  • Improving the ecological health of the Aravalli range.
  • To prevent the eastward expansion of the Thar Desert and to reduce land degradation by creating green barriers that will prevent soil erosion, desertification and dust storms
  • Contribute to India''s commitments under various international conventions such as UNCCD (United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification), CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) and UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).

Aravali Hills

• The Aravalli Range is one of the oldest fold mountains of the world which runs in a southwest direction, starting near Delhi, passing through southern Haryana and Rajasthan, and ending in Gujarat.
• The highest peak is Guru Shikhar at 1,722 metres (5,650 ft).
• Three major rivers originate from the Aravali hills, namely Banas, Sahibi and Luni River (which flows into the Rann of Kutch).