1) Grain Storage Plan: The Union Cabinet has given its nod to the formation of an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) under the Chairmanship of Ministry of Cooperation to facilitate the implementation of the “World’s Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector.”
- This transformative plan aims to converge the schemes of the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, and Ministry of Food Processing .
- The plan entails setting up various types of agri-infrastructure, including warehouse, custom hiring centre, processing units, etc. at the level of Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS), thus transforming them into multipurpose societies.
- This ambitious scheme intends to construct grain storage facilities in the cooperative sector. Every block will have a dedicated godown with a capacity of 2,000 tonnes.
2) CITIIS 2.0 Program: The City Investments to Innovate, Integrate and Sustain 2.0 (CITIIS 2.0) program, developed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), in collaboration with the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Union (EU), and the National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), will be implemented from 2023 to 2027.
- The funding for this program would include a loan from AFD and KfW and a technical assistance grant of Rs.106 cr from the EU.
- The program envisages supporting competitively selected projects promoting a circular economy with a focus on integrated waste management at the city level, climate-oriented reform actions at the State level, and institutional strengthening and knowledge dissemination at the National level.
- It has three major components: Component 1: Financial and technical support for developing projects focused on building climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation in up to 18 smart cities through a selection of competitively selected projects.
- Component 2: All States and UTs will be eligible for support on-demand basis.
- Component 3: Interventions at all three levels; Centre, State and City to further climate governance in urban India through institutional strengthening, knowledge dissemination, partnerships, building capacity, research and development to support scale-up across all States and Cities.
3) Guarani tribe: They are a tribe living majorly in Brazil, Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina.
- These people in Brazil are divided into three groups: Kaiowá, Ñandeva and M’byá, of which the largest is the Kaiowá which means ‘forest people’.
- They are deeply spiritual people.
4) Necrophilia: Recently, the Karnataka High Court has recommended that the Union government amend the Indian Penal Code (IPC) to bring necrophilia under the definition of an offense of unnatural sex or introduce a new provision in IPC to make necrophilia an offense.
- Necrophilia is derived from the Greek words philios (attraction to/love) and nekros (dead body) and involves the sexual attraction to a dead body.
- The Bench pointed out that sexual assault on dead bodies does not attract the provision of rape under Section 376 of IPC.
- The court noted that in India, there is no specific legislation, including under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code for the purpose of upholding dignity and protecting rights and crime against the dead body of the woman unlike the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa where necrophilia is an offense.,’
5) Himalayan Brown Bear: It is a large carnivore found in North-western and central Himalaya, including Pakistan, India, Nepal, the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and Bhutan.
- It is the largest mammal in the region, males reaching up to 2.2 m (7 ft) long, while females are a little smaller.
- The bears are omnivorous sand hibernate in dens during the winter.
- It has thick fur which is most often sandy or reddish-brown in colour.
- IUCN Red List: Critically Endangered, Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972: Schedule I, CITES – Appendix I
