Who was Sir CP, whose ‘independent Travancore mission’ ended with assassination bid

• Sir Chetput Pattabhiraman Ramaswamy Iyer, popularly known as ‘Sir CP’, was the Diwan of the erstwhile Travancore princely state from 1936 to 1947.
• He was a lawyer who served as the Advocate-General of Madras Presidency from 1920 to 1923.
• Serving as Adviser to the prince between 1931 and 1936, Sir CP was personally requested by Sri Chithira Thirunal in 1936 to be the Diwan of Travancore, an offer he accepted and served at the position for 10 years.
• Maharaja Sri Chithira Thirunal, who wished to stay independent when Britain announced its intention to quit India on June 3, 1947, was supported by Sir CP, who declared his intention of forming an independent state of Travancore that would be open to the idea of signing a treaty with the Indian union.
• His policies led to a massive uprising, the Punnapra-Vayalar revolt, which was suppressed by the Travancore army and navy.
• The anger and discontent culminated into an assassination attempt on Sir CP on July 25, 1947, at a concert commemorating the anniversary of Swati Thirunal.
• On July 30, 1947, Travancore joined India.

Three-day Global Meet On ''drug-free Childhood''

• It is organised by Fourth Wave Foundation (FWF) in partnership with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and World Federation Against Drugs (WFAD).
• Theme: ‘Children Matter-Right to a Drug-Free Childhood’ is the central theme of the meet.
• Fourth Wave Foundation’s initiative against substance abuse named ‘VENDA’ (No to Drugs), strongly advocates the ‘alternative pursuit’ model in Kerala on the lines of Icelandic Model (IM).
• Major activities of ‘VENDA’ include empowerment programmes for children, football training, summer camp, football tourney ‘Venda Cup’ and awareness classes for parents, teachers, counsellors, police and excise officers.
• ‘VENDA’ is active in districts that have a very high number of drug-addicted teens found by the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) survey conducted by the Narcotic Control Bureau.
• The increasing relevance of the Icelandic Model (IM) of intervention in bringing teenagers affected by drug use disorders back to normal life through alternative pursuits will be a key topic of deliberations at the International Forum on ‘Right to Drug-free Childhood’.
  • Around 30 years ago, Iceland was the hotspot of teenage drug consumption in Europe.
  • Today, the country stands first on the European list of de-addicted teenagers.

Corporates pitch in to play key role in ''Naan Mudhalvan'' scheme

• It is an initiative of Tamil Nadu State government.
• Naan Mudhalvan platform aims to provide dynamic information for college students on courses and relevant information about industry specific skill offerings.
• This will enable the students of TamilNadu to get training in their chosen field of interest that will help them in achieving their career goals.
• The objective of this scheme is to identify potential training providers, to impart various skill trainings based on current industry gaps.
• Through this flagship program the students will be able to get trained and ensure they get jobs according to their skill sets.

Population Criteria For New Eklavya Schools ‘impractical’, Says Parliamentary Committee

• The Tribal Affairs Ministry intends to go ahead with its plan to build new Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) on 15 acres of land in all sub-districts which have Scheduled Tribe communities of more than 20,000 people, who make up at least 50% of their total population, despite a Parliamentary panel saying that this criteria is “impractical”.
• Implementing ministry: Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
• Background: The scheme of EMRSs was introduced in the year 1997-98 to ensure tribal students get access to quality education in the remote tribal areas.
• Features:
  • The schools would focus to provide quality upper primary, secondary and senior secondary level education to ST Students in these areas.
  • Apart from school building including hostels and staff quarters, provision for a playground, students'' computer lab, teacher resource room etc. are also included in the EMRSs.
• Revamp of scheme: In 2018, Union Cabinet revamped the scheme with following features.
  • EMRSs will be setup in every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal persons.
  • There will be an Autonomous Society under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs similar to Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti to run the EMRSs.

Jitendra Singh dedicates first Indian Biological Data Center to the nation

• The government has for the first time set up a digitised repository where Indian researchers will store biological data from publicly funded research, reducing their dependency on American and European data banks.
• The digitised data will be stored on a four-petabyte supercomputer called ‘Brahm’.
  • A petabyte equals 10,00,000 gigabytes (gb).
• The government has mandated that data from all publicly funded research should be stored in this central repository.
• So it will not only provide a platform to researchers to securely store their data within the country, it will also provide access to a large database of indigenous sequences for analyses.
• At present, most Indian researchers depend on the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and National Center for Biotechnology Information databases for storing the biological data.
• There are other smaller datasets available with some institutes, but those are not accessible to all. This will be the first national data repository, where the data will not only be submitted from across India but can be accessed by researchers from across India.
• The bio-bank, which cost about Rs 85 crore to set up, currently accepts neucleotide sequences — the digitised genetic makeup of humans, plants, animals, and microbes.
• There are now 200 billion base pair data in the bio-bank, including 200 human genomes sequenced under the ‘1,000 Genome Project’, which is an international effort to map the genetic variations in people.
• The database also contains most of the 2.6 lakh Sars-Cov-2 genomes sequenced by the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG).
• The database will also store the 25,000 sequences of mycobacterium tuberculosis.
• The database currently also stores the genomic sequences of crops such as rice, onion, tomatoes and mustard, among others.
• The database currently offers two mechanisms for data submission to researchers.
  • One, open access where the data uploaded can be immediately used by other researchers from across the country and
  • two, controlled access where the data will not be openly shared for a number of years before being opened up to all.
• The biobank also has a backup data ‘Disaster Recovery’ site at National Informatics Centre (NIC)-Bhubaneshwar.

J&K’s Doda district to be recognised as role model in lavender farming: Union minister Jitendra Singh

• Lavandula (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae.
• The flowers may be blue, violet or lilac in the wild species, occasionally blackish purple or yellowish.
• Lavender has been used over centuries in traditional medicine and cosmetics.
• These flowers grow in temperate areas and are drought-resistant crops.
• A single Lavender plant bears flowers for 15 years, needs low maintenance and can be used from the second year of plantation.

AROMA Mission

• CSIR-AROMA Mission, under the Ministry of Science & Technology aims to develop and disseminate the aroma-related science and technology to reach the end user/clients of CSIR: Farmers, industry and society.
• Under the Centre’s ‘One District, One Product’ scheme, Lavender has been designated as the Doda brand product.
• Bhaderwah, which is also known as ‘Chhota Kashmir’, has a mild cold climate during summers that is ideal for Lavender.
• Bhaderwah is the birthplace of India''s Purple Revolution.
• India’s first National Institute of High Altitude Medicine is also being built in Bhaderwah.
• Bhaderwah (also Bhadarwah Valley) is a town, tehsil and sub-division in the district Doda of Jammu.

Issues on table at terror funding meet: Use of dark web and crowdfunding

• It is organised by Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
• It aims to progress the discussions on combating terrorist financing held by the international community in the previous two Conferences in Paris (2018) and Melbourne (2019).
• It also intends to include discussions on technical, legal, regulatory and cooperation aspects of all facets of terrorism financing.
• It attempts to also set the pace for other high level official and political deliberations, focused on countering terrorist financing.
• The Conference intends to bring together representatives of 75 countries and international bodies for extended deliberations over two days.
• Discussions at the 3rd ‘No Money For Terror’ Conference will be focussed on global trends in terrorism and terrorist financing, use of formal and informal channels of funds for terrorism, emerging technologies and terrorist financing and requisite international co-operation to address related challenges.
• India was host to two global events in October, 2022 - the annual General Assembly of the Interpol in Delhi and a special session of the UN Counter Terrorism Committee in Mumbai and Delhi.

''75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow'' this year''s IIFI awards in Goa

• The 75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow initiative is the brainchild of Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sports, Anurag Singh Thakur.
• The initiative aims to identify, encourage and nurture young creative talent in filmmaking, from the entire length and breadth of the country.
• The segment is an annual platform at the International Film Festival of India held in Goa, to identify, encourage and nurture young creative talents from across various aspects of filmmaking.
• The initiative is in its second year, having been launched in 2021 to mark the 75th year of India’s independence as part of the ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ celebrations.
• The 75 creative minds will be shortlisted and selected on the basis of their submissions by an eminent jury, under the aegis of the National Film Development Corporation ahead of the 53rd edition of International Film Festival of India.

National Workshop on Localization of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) in Gram Panchayats

• A three-day National Workshop on Localization of Sustainable Development Goals in Gram Panchayats through Adopting Thematic Approaches: Theme 1: Poverty Free and Enhanced Livelihood Gram Panchayats is being organised during 14 – 16 November, 2022 at CIAL Convention Centre, Kochi, Kerala.
• The workshop aims to create awareness on the national level importance of addressing
  • marginalisation – inclusion and access to basic services, social safety nets and protection systems – leveraging National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) and National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) through Panchayats, and
  • livelihoods – the role of Panchayats in addressing income inequality & poverty, eradicating extreme poverty and improving employment opportunities for poor, vulnerable and marginalized sections and
  • building resilience of vulnerable communities against the sudden shocks brought about by disasters and extreme climate events.
• Sustainable Development Goals adopted by United Nations came into effect from January 1, 2016.
• Ministry of Panchayat Raj, Government of India has adopted thematic approach to SDGs – It is approach to ensure ‘local action’ for achieving ‘global plan’.
• The approach aims to localise SDGs in rural areas through PRIs, especially Gram Panchayats by clubbing 17 ‘Goals’ into ‘9 Themes’.
• Appropriate policy decisions and revisions have followed resulting into revamping of Rashtriya Gram Swaraj Abhiyan (RGSA) and Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) Guidelines which smoothens the process of Localisation of Sustainable Development Goals (LSDGs) in Gram Panchayats.

53rd Edition of International Film Festival of India to be hosted in Goa

• The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is among Asia’s most prominent film festivals.
• It is held annually, currently in the state of Goa.
• Since 2004, starting from the 35th edition, the International Film Festival of India, became globally competitive, and moved to its permanent venue Goa, and is being held during the months of November and December of each year.
• The festival is conducted jointly by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Directorate of Film Festivals and the Government of Goa.
• The idea of the International Film Festival of India is to celebrate films, the stories they tell and the people behind them.