1) The Indira Gandhi Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme: rolled out in Rajasthan
- Objective: Providing economic support to the poor and needy families living in the cities through work to be provided on demand for 100 days a year.
- Eligibility: Age group of 18 to 60 years residing within the limits of urban local bodies are eligible. There is no income limit, though the poor and destitute people will be given preference.
2) Trees Outside Forests (TOF) in India Initiative: It was launched by MoEFCC and USAID with the aim to expand tree coverage outside of traditional forests by 28 lakh hectares.
- In India, FSI has defined TOF as “All trees growing outside recorded forest areas irrespective of the size of the patch”.
- Implementation: In seven states through a partnership between farmers, companies and private institutions.
- Trees outside forests (TOF) in India, mainly growing on private land, are the main source of wood in the country for industry and domestic wood fuel. The total forest and tree cover of the country is 24.62 per cent of the geographical area of the country.
3) IPEF Ministerial: It is the US-led economic grouping of 14 countries in the Indo-Pacific region, intended to counter Chinese aggressive and non-transparent trade and economic policies.
- Members: Four QUAD countries, South Korea, New Zealand, Fiji and seven out of the ASEAN members (see map)
- The IPEF framework has four pillars: Supply-chain resilience, Clean energy, decarbonisation & infrastructure, Taxation & anti-corruption (anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and tax), and Fair & resilient trade (strong labour and environment standards etc.)
- India has joined three out of four pillars related to supply chains, tax and anti-corruption and clean energy, but didn’t join the “Fair and resilient trade” pillar
4) Taragiri: This is the third in the line of four frigates under project 17A to be made by Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. (MDL) in Mumbai.
- Project 17A: Started in 2015, it involves the building of seven stealth frigates
- Of these seven, the contract for three frigates was awarded to GRSE (Kolkata) while four frigates was awarded to Government-owned Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL)
- Frigates are usually used as escort vessels to protect sea lines of communication or as an auxiliary component of a strike group whereas destroyers are generally integrated into carrier battle groups as the air defence component or utilised to provide territorial air and missile defence.
5) Swachh Vayu Diwas: In order to raise awareness of pollution, the 3rd International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies (“Swachh Vayu Neel Gagan”) or “Swachh Vayu Diwas” was organized under NCAP (National Clean Air programme).
- NCAP (launched in 2019) aims to bring a 20-30% reduction in pollution levels from PM2.5 and PM10 particles by 2024 from 2017 levels as a base.
- Implementation by CPCB in over 132 most polluted cities.
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