Daily Prelims 25th December 2023

1) Asian Development Bank (ADB) Loan to Tripura: The Government of India signed an agreement with the ADB to avail USD 100 million loan to improve urban services and tourism facilities in Tripura. 

• Genesis: Established in 1966.  
• Members: 68 members (49 are from within Asia and Pacific). India is a member 
• Shareholders: Developing and developing countries from Asia as well as from outside Asia.  
• USA and Japan are the largest shareholders followed by China and India.  
• Function: It assists its members and partners by providing loans, technical assistance, grants, and equity investments to promote social and economic development. 

2) Namdapha flying squirrel (Biswamoyopterus biswasi): Missing for 42 years, flying squirrel resurfaces in Arunachal Pradesh.  

• It’s a nocturnal, endemic to northeastern India mammal.  
• Status: Critically endangered.  
• Range: Only known with certainty from a single specimen collected in Namdapha National Park, Arunachal Pradesh.  
• Habitat: Occurs in dry deciduous montane forests occupying moist forest tracts along streams.  
• Threats: poaching, habitat loss.  
• Protected under schedule II of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.  
• Namdapha Tiger Reserve has evergreen Forests, Moist deciduous forests, sub-tropical forests, Temperate Forests and Alpine biomes. 

3) Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) – 2023: 8th edition of IONS Conclave of Chiefs was conducted by Royal Thai Navy at Bangkok, Thailand. Republic of Korea Navy was welcomed as latest ‘Observer’, raising the collective strength of IONS to 34 (25 Members & 09 Observers).  

• Was conceived by Indian Navy in 2008.  
• It is a voluntary initiative that seeks to increase maritime cooperation among navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region.  
• Last year, IONS conducted its maiden edition of maritime exercise, IMEX-22. 

4) Salwa Judum: NHRC has directed Ministry of Home Affairs and 6 States to furnish information on victims of Salwa Judum.  

• The term Salwa Judum translates to “Purification Hunt” in local Gondi language.  
• It was a militia that had been deployed as part of anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh.  
• It was operational between 2005 and 2011, before it was banned by Supreme Court in Nandini Sundar vs State of Chhattisgarh case.  
• Critics accused Salwa Judum of human rights abuses, including forced displacement, arbitrary arrests etc.