Important Fact For Prelims (25th February 2019)

• 25 Feb 2019

Chabahar Port

• Afghanistan, for the first time, has begun exports to India through Iran’s Chabahar port. 
• The delivery of the cargos will be carried out under the International Road Transports’ TIR (Transports Internationaux Routiers) convention.
• The port is crucial for India’s connectivity to Afghanistan apart from an air corridor that becomes operationalized in 2017.
• For India, Chabahar provides access to Central Asia and International North-South Transport Corridor that connects Mumbai to Moscow.
• The port is also important for landlocked Afghanistan which is keen to get connect itself with international markets.
• The bilateral trade between India and Afghanistan jumped by 40% in 2018-19 and has crossed USD 1 billion, with imports from Afghanistan accounting or USD 740 Million.
• Afghanistan has a huge trade surplus with India, the only country with which Afghanistan has a trade surplus.

Bandipur National Park

• Recently, NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (NASA-FIRMS) has detected 32 fire incidents in Himavad Gopalaswamy Betta range of Bandipur National Park.
• Bandipur National Park is located between where the Deccan Plateau meets the Western Ghats in Karnataka.
• It is part of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve with the adjoining Nagarhole National Park, Mudumalai National Park, and Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary.
• It has a variety of biomes including dry deciduous forests moist deciduous forests and shrublands.
• The park is flanked by the Kabini river in the north and the Moyar river in the south. The Nugu river runs through the park.

NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS)

• NASA's Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS) distributes Near-Real-Time (NRT) active fire data within 3 hours of satellite overpass from NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and NASA's Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS).

Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN)

• The Prime-minister launched PM-KISAN scheme from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.
• Under PM-KISAN, vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land up-to 2 hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs. 6,000 per year.
• This income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers, in three equal installments of Rs. 2,000 each.
• This programme is under the aegis of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and aims to address farm sector distress, caused by lower sales realization on bumper production of food-grains, oilseeds, sugarcane, cotton and horticulture crops.
• State Government and UT Administration will identify the farmer families which are eligible for support as per scheme guidelines.
• This programme will entail an annual expenditure of Rs.75,000 crore which will be funded by the Government of India. Around 12 crore small and marginal farmer families are expected to benefit from this.