July 30th Current Affairs

1. Samagra Shiksha.

IN NEWS:

Scheme for promoting education in rural areas.

KEY POINTS:

• The Government of India launched Samagra Shiksha-an Integrated Scheme for school education, w.e.f. 2018-19, as an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class XII.
• It aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education at all levels of school education, across the country including the rural areas.
• The scheme provides
• support to States and UTs for strengthening of infrastructure in schools,
• universal access, bringing gender equality,
• promoting inclusive education, quality of education,
• financial support for teachers’ salary,
• digital initiatives,
• entitlements under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 including uniforms and textbooks, pre-school education, vocational education, sports and physical education, setting up and running of Kasturba Gandhi BalikaVidyalays and strengthening of teacher education institutions.
• Also, Mid-Day-Meal is provided to students at the elementary level of education.
• Further, under National Means-cum-Merit Scholarship Scheme scholarship is awarded to meritorious students of economically weaker sections to arrest their drop out at class VIII and encourage them to continue the study at secondary stage.

SOURCE:PIB

2. Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS).

IN NEWS:

India’s 14 Tiger Reserves get Global CA/TS recognition for good Tiger Conservation.

KEY POINTS:

• Conservation Assured | Tiger Standards (CA|TS) has been agreed upon as accreditation tool by the global coalition of Tiger Range Countries (TRCs) and has been developed by tiger and protected area experts.
• Officially launched in 2013, it sets minimum standards for effective management of target species and encourages assessment of these standards in relevant conservation areas.
• CA|TS is a set of criteria which allows tiger sites to check if their management will lead to successful tiger conservation.
• During all India tiger estimation 2018, leopard population was also estimated within the forested habitats in tiger occupied states of the country.
• The overall leopard population in tiger range landscape of India in 2018 was estimated at 12,852 (SE range 12,172 – 13,535). This is a significant increase from the 2014, figure that was 7,910 (SE 6,566-9,181) in forested habitats of 18 tiger bearing states of the country.
• The event also showcased, the 14 Tiger Reserves in India which received the accreditation of the Global Conservation Assured|Tiger Standards (CA|TS).
• The 14 tiger reserves which have been accredited are Manas, Kaziranga and Orang in Assam, Satpura, Kanha and Panna in Madhya Pradesh, Pench in Maharashtra, Valmiki Tiger Reserve in Bihar, Dudhwa in Uttar Pradesh,Sunderbans in West Bengal, Parambikulam in Kerala, Bandipur Tiger Reserve of Karnataka and Mudumalai and Anamalai Tiger Reserve in Tamil Nadu.
• The Government of India took a proactive step to classify forest and wildlife protection as ‘essential services’ during lockdown.
• The Country’s forest force continued to toil day and night; protecting forests and wildlife even during the deadly Covid-19 pandemic.

SOURCE:PIB

3. Geo-imaging satellite “EOS-03”.

IN NEWS:

Geo-imaging satellite“EOS-03”is scheduled for launch in the third quarter of 2021 by ISRO.

KEY POINTS:

About EOS-3 Satellite

• EOS-03 is Earth Observation Satellite that would enable near-real time monitoring of natural disasters like floods & cyclones.
• Earth observation is the gathering of information about Earth’s physical, chemical and biological systems.
• Other earth observation satellites launched by ISRO include RESOURCESAT- 2, 2A, CARTOSAT-1, 2, 2A, 2B, RISAT-1 and 2, OCEANSAT-2, Megha-Tropiques, SARAL and SCATSAT-1, INSAT-3DR, 3D, etc.
• EOS-03 is capable of imaging the whole country 4-5 times daily.
• In addition to natural disasters, EOS-03 would also enable monitoring of water bodies, crops, vegetation conditions, forest cover changes etc.

Other development: SSLV

• The first developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle or SSLV is scheduled in the fourth quarter of 2021 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
• SSLV is to be developed as a cost-effective, three stage, all-solid launch vehicle with a payload capability of 500 kg to 500 km planar orbit or 300 kg to Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit.
• SSLV is ideal for on-demand, quick turn-around launch of small satellites.

SOURCE:TH

4. AERA Amendment Bill, 2021.

IN NEWS:

• The Lok Sabha passed the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India (AERA) Amendment Bill, 2021.
• It was first introduced in March 2021 and subsequently referred to a parliamentary standing committee on transport, tourism and culture, which approved it without any changes.
• It seeks to amend the Airports Economic Regulatory Authority of India Act, 2008.

KEY POINTS:

Major Provisions:

• It proposes to amend the definition of major airport to include a group of airports.
• The 2008 Act designates an airport as a major airport if it has an annual passenger traffic of at least 35 lakh.
• The central government may also designate any airport as a major airport by a notification.
• It will allow AERA to regulate tariff and other charges for aeronautical services for not just major airports with annual passenger traffic of more than 35 lakh, but also a group of airports.
• The government will be able to club profitable and non-profitable airports as a combination/package to bidders to make it a viable combination for investment under PPP (Public-Private Partnership) mode.

Significance:

• It will help in expanding the air connectivity to relatively remote areas and as a result, expediting the UDAN regional connectivity scheme.
• It will encourage development of smaller airports.

Concern:

• Lack of clarity in the bill on the criterion for deciding which airports will be clubbed together to qualify under ‘a group of airports’ definition, whether it will be the passenger traffic of more than 3.5 million or some other factors too.

SOURCE:TH

5. International Tiger Day 2021.

IN NEWS:

On 29th July, 2021, International Tiger Day which is also known as World Tiger Day is observed annually.

KEY POINTS:

• This day is observed to create and spread awareness about the dangers faced by the tiger population of the world.
• It is very important to focus on the conservation of tigers as they play an important role in maintaining and protecting a balanced ecosystem.
• World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) states that since tigers are the top predators, they play a very important role in maintaining the planet’s ecosystems harmony.
• By preying on the herbivore population, tigers have helped to keep the balance between the forest vegetation and the animals.

Significance of International Tiger Day

• World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says that at the beginning of the 20th century there were around 1,00,000 tigers.
• In the year 2010, it was observed that the number has drastically reduced to 3,200.
• Therefore, it is very important to save the tiger population of the world.
• Hence, the International Tiger Day plays an important role by creating and spreading awareness and works for the conservation of tigers.

SOURCE:IE

6. Sambandar.

IN NEWS:

The National Gallery of Australia (NGA) announced that it would return 14 works of art from its Asian art collection to India.

KEY POINTS:

The works being returned are:

• dancing child-saint Sambandar of 12th century belonging to Chola dynasty,
• processional standard [alam], from Hyderabad,
• arch for a Jain shrine (11th-12th century), seated Jina, 1163 from Mount Abu region, Rajasthan,
• the divine couple Lakshmi and Vishnu [Lakshmi Narayana] (11-12th century), and
• Durga Mahisasuramardini, from Gujarat.

Important Information :

Sambandar

• Sambandar, also referred to as Thirugnana Sambandar was a Saiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived sometime in the 7th century CE. He was a contemporary of Appar, another Saiva poet-saint.
• He was a child prodigy who lived just 16 years. According to the Tamil Shaiva tradition, he composed an oeuvre of 16,000 hymns in complex meters, of which 383 (384) hymns with 4,181 stanzas have survived.
• These narrate an intense loving devotion (bhakti) to the Hindu god Shiva.
• The surviving compositions of Sambandar are preserved in the first three volumes of the Tirumurai, and provide a part of the philosophical foundation of Shaiva Siddhanta.

SOURCE:TH