• At present, India has a network of 903 Protected Areas in the country covering about 5% of the total geographic area of the country. In order to assess the efficacy of Protected Areas, evaluation of management effectiveness is required.
  
• Management Effectiveness Evaluation (MEE) of Protected Areas (PAs) has emerged as a key tool for PA managers and is increasingly being used by governments and international bodies to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the protected area management systems.
  
• The results of present assessment are encouraging with overall mean MEE score of 62.01% which is higher than the global mean of 56%.
  
• With this round of evaluation, the Ministry of Environment successfully completed one full cycle of evaluating all terrestrial National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries of the country from 2006 to 2019.
  

Important Info :

• The minister also announced that from this year onwards 10 best National Parks, 5 coastal and Marine parks and top five Zoos in the country will be ranked and awarded every year.
• A new framework for MEE of Marine Protected Areas has been also jointly prepared by WII and Ministry of Environment and it will be very useful document to implement.

Source : PIB

Ministry of Coal launched Single Window Clearance Portal, a unified platform that facilitates grant of clearances and approvals required for starting a coal mine in India

• Single Window Clearance Portal is in the spirit of Minimum Government and Maximum Governance. It would be a milestone for Ease of Doing Business in the Indian Coal Sector.
  
• Presently, about 19 major approval or clearances are required to be obtained before starting a coal mine in the country.
  
• The Portal will map not only the relevant application formats, but also process flow for grant of approval or clearances.
  

Important Info :

• The portal was launched in an event organized in New Delhi to execute agreements with successful bidders of India’s first ever commercial coal mine auctions.
• Recently, 19 successful bidders were allotted mines under the country’s first commercial coal mining auction. This will give the states an estimated revenue of about Rs 6,500 crore per year and will also create more than 70,000 jobs.

Source : PIB

The State-owned undertakings Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) have turned EBITDA positive in first 6 months of this financial year

• EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.
  
• It is a metric used to evaluate a company’s overall financial performance. EBITDA is a measure of profits.
  
• EBITDA is now commonly used to compare the financial health of companies and to evaluate firms with different tax rates and depreciation policies.
  
• Among its drawbacks, EBITDA is not a substitute for analysing a company’s cash flow and can make a company look like it has more money to make interest payments than it really does.
  
• EBITDA also ignores the quality of a company’s earnings and can make it look cheaper than it really is.
  

Source : PIB

The second edition of the biennial pan-India coastal defence exercise ‘Sea Vigil-21’ will be conducted on 12-13 January 2021

• The exercise, inaugural edition of which was conducted in January 2019; will be undertaken along the entire 7516 km coastline and Exclusive Economic Zone of India.
  
• It will involve all the 13 coastal States and Union Territories along with other maritime stakeholders, including the fishing and coastal communities.
  
• The exercise is being coordinated by the Indian Navy.
  
• The exercise is a build up towards the major Theatre level exercise TROPEX [Theatre-level Readiness Operational Exercise] which Indian Navy conducts every two years.
  
• SEA VIGIL and TROPEX together will cover the entire spectrum of maritime security challenges, including transition from peace to conflict.
  

Source : Indian Express

The North East Venture Fund (NEVF) is gaining popularity among Start-Ups and young entrepreneurs

• It was introduced by the NDA government. The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) had joined with North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) to set up the North East Venture Fund.
  
• It the first and the only Venture Fund for Northeast with an initial corpus of Rs. 100 crores.
  
• The fund targets to invest in Start-Ups and unique business opportunities to provide resources for new entrepreneurships.
  
• The main focus of NEVF is for mostly the enterprises involved in Food Processing, Healthcare, Tourism, segregation of services, IT, etc.
  
• The investment size with the Venture Fund Scheme ranges between Rs.25 lakhs and Rs. 10 crores with a long term horizon of five to ten years.
  

Source : PIB

Turlapaty Kutumba Rao (1933 – 2021) was an Indian journalist and orator, known for his service to journalism in Telugu language

• He is reported to have written over 4000 biographies and delivered over 16000 public speeches which has been recorded by the Telugu Book of Records as a world record.
  
• He was a secretary to T. Prakasham, former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and was known to have mooted the idea of demarcating states on the basis of language in 1947, when India became independent.
  
• He was a recipient of the title of Guardian of Telugu from C. Rajagopalachari, then Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
  
• He was honored in 2002, with the Padma Shri making him the first journalist from the state of Andhra Pradesh to receive the award.
  

Source : The Hindu

The Union Environment Minister launched the Management Effectiveness Evaluation of Indian Zoos (MEE-ZOO) framework

• The framework proposes guidelines, criteria and indicators for evaluation of zoos of the country in a manner which is discrete, holistic and independent.
  
• The assessment criteria and indicators look beyond the traditional concepts, include issues of animal welfare, husbandry and sustainability of resources and finance.
  
• The MEE-ZOO exercise is moving towards developing highest standards in Zoos across India and adhering to core values of accountability, transparency, innovation, use of technology, collaboration and integrity to achieve the mandate of conservation of endangered species.
  

Source : PIB

Ministry of Power, in association with Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), organised the 30th National Energy Conservation Awards (NECA) function

• During the event, the Standards and Labelling Programme for Air Compressors and Ultra High Definition (UHD) TV was launched on a voluntary basis
  • The energy consumption standards will be effective from 01st January 2021.
    
  • This initiative is expected to save around 8.41 Billion Units of electricity for Air Compressors and 9.75 Billion Units for UHD TV till 2030.
    
    
• SAATHEE (State-wise Actions on Annual Targets and Headways on Energy Efficiency) – A portal for State Designated Agency for state level activities was also launched.
  • BEE has developed a Management Information System (MIS) portal namely SAATHEE.
    
  • It which will facilitate real-time monitoring of the progress of implementation of various Energy Conservation endeavours at State level.
    
    
    Source : The Hindu

Apple, Amazon and Google have suspended the social network called Parler, saying that the platform has not taken enough measures to make sure that content inciting violence remains in check

• Parler is an American alt-tech microblogging and social networking service.
  
• Launched in August 2018, Parler markets itself as a free speech and unbiased alternative to mainstream social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.
  
• Parler has a significant user base of Donald Trump supporters, conservatives, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing extremists.
  

Important Info :

Why was it suspended?

• The move has come following the events of January 6 when an armed mob of Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill and clashed with the police as Congress convened to validate Joe Biden’s presidential win.
• The platform is favoured by right-leaning users and as per media reports was actively used by supporters of US President Donald Trump, including several of those who participated in the Capitol Hill siege.

Source : Indian Express

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