Important Facts for Prelims (03rd October 2018) | 03 Oct 2018

IBSAMAR-VI

• It is a joint Multinational Maritime Exercise between the Indian, Brazilian and South African Navies. Currently being held at Simons Town, South Africa from 01 – 13 Oct 18.
• The last edition of IBSAMAR (IBSAMAR V) was conducted in Goa.
• The aim of the exercise is to undertake collective training for participating navies, building interoperability and mutual understanding and sharing of best practices.
• The exercise includes both harbor and sea phases with various navigation and seamanship evolutions, surface weapons firing, force protection exercises, antipiracy exercise, anti-air, and anti-submarine exercise and flying operations. Sports and social engagements activities are also planned.
• The Indian Navy is represented in IBSAMAR VI by Guided Missile Frigate Tarkash (Talwar-class frigate), Guided Missile Destroyer Kolkata, Long Range Maritime Patrol Aircraft P8I, Sea-king, and Chetak helicopters and a MARCOS (Marine Commandos) contingent.

Exercise Avia-Indra-18

• The second edition of Exercise Avia Indra, a Biennial Air Force level exercise between Indian and the Russian Federation, the first session of which was conducted from 17 Sep to 28 Sep 2018 at Lipetsk, Russia.
• The second session will be conducted in Jodhpur, India from 10 Dec to 22 Dec 2018.
• The aim of the exercise was to formulate and validate the use of airpower in an anti-terrorist operation in a bilateral scenario and sharing best practices.
• The exercise included the briefing on Aerospace safety and anti-terrorist air operations.
• First Avia Indra was conducted in 2014 and has been planned as a bi-annual exercise
• The aircraft that would participate in the exercise include Su-30 SM, Mig-29, Su-25, Mi-8, and An-26.

National Safai Karamcharis Finance & Development Corporation (NSKFDC)

• It is a wholly owned Govt. of India Undertaking under the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment and was set up in 1997 as a Company “Not for Profit”.
• Apart from operating various loan and non-loan based schemes for the upliftment of the target group, NSKFDC is playing a vital role in the elimination of manual scavenging - the worst surviving symbol of untouchability.
• NSKFDC has been designated as the Nodal Agency for implementation of the SRMS (Central Sector Self Employment Scheme for Rehabilitation of Manual Scavengers) under the aegis of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.
• As a part of the yearlong commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi from 2nd October 2018 to 2nd October 2019, a pan-India Workshop on Prevention of Hazardous cleaning of sewers and septic tanks was organized under NSKFDC.

UNESCO Global Geopark Status

• Lonar Lake, St.Mary’s Island, and Malpe Beach are poised to become Global Geoparks.
• Global Geo parks are single, unified geographical areas where sites and landscapes of international geological significance are managed with a holistic concept of protection, education, and sustainable development.
• UNESCO Global Geoparks are established through a bottom-up process involving all relevant local and regional stakeholders and authorities in the area i.e. landowners, community groups, tourism providers, indigenous people etc.
• An aspiring Global Geopark must have a dedicated website, a corporate identity, a comprehensive management plan.

The significance of Geoparks Tag

• The creation of innovative local enterprises, new jobs, and high-quality training courses is stimulated as new sources of revenue are generated through geo-tourism, while the geological resources of the area are protected.
• A UNESCO Global Geopark uses its geological heritage, in connection with all other aspects of the area’s natural and cultural heritage, to enhance awareness and understanding of key issues facing society, such as using the earth’s resources sustainably, mitigating the effects of climate change and reducing natural disaster-related risks.
• The Geopark tag is akin to that of a 'World Heritage Site' for a historical monument.

Lonar Lake

• The Lonar Crater Lake is a notified National Geo-heritage Monument by Geological Survey of India. It is located in Buldana district, Maharashtra.
• It possesses rich biological diversity such as non-symbiotic nitrogen-fixing microbes like Slackia sp. Actinopolyspora sp. and migratory birds such as shelducks, grebes, Ruddy shelduck
  and black-winged stilts.

St. Mary Island

• St. Mary's Islands, also known as Coconut Island are a set of four small islands in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Malpe in Udupi Karnataka.
• They are known for their distinctive geological formation of columnar basaltic lava.
• The island is considered an important site for "Geo Tourism" declared by the Geological Survey of India in 2001.
• The western coasts of the islands are a seashell haven with seashells of various shapes and sizes littered along the coast.

Malpe Beach

• Malpe is a natural port to the west of Udupi, Karnataka.
• It is an important port and a major fishing harbor on the Karnataka coast.

Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0

• It is a flagship programme of Ministry of Human Resource Development with a focus upon enriching rural India.
• Under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan 2.0 institutions are selected in ‘challenge mode’(in a time frame)and the scheme has been extended to 840 reputed higher educational institutes, both public and private of the country.
• It engages the faculty and students of the higher educational institution in understanding rural realities.
• It covers two domains for holistic development of villages – Human Development and economic development in an integrated way.
• It identifies and selects existing innovative technologies to find innovative solutions as per local needs.
• Each selected institute would adopt a cluster of villages will carry out studies of living conditions in adopted villages, assess the local problems using technological intervention, and work in close coordination with the District administration.
• In this process faculty and students of such institutes would be connected to rural realities so that their learning and research become more oriented to society.
• IIT Delhi is designated as National Coordinating institute.

Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GDPD)-Sabki Yojana, Sabka Vikas

• The People’s Plan Campaign (People's Plan Campaign, held in 1996 in Kerala State, was an experiment in the decentralization of powers to local governments with a focus on local planning) will be rolled out as ‘Sabki Yojna Sabka Vikas’ from the 2nd October till 31st December 2018.
• The GDPD will be an intensive and structured exercise for planning at Gram Sabha level through convergence between Panchayati Raj institutions and concerned departments of the State.
• During the campaign, structured Gram Sabha meetings will be held for preparing the Gram Panchayat Development Plan for the next financial year 2019-2020.
• Monitoring of People’s Plan Campaign would involve geotagged visuals of GS meetings, visit Gram Sabhas for every District official of concerned departments and NLM (National Level Monitors) visits random Gram Sabhas.
• The Gram Panchayat Development Plan aims to strengthen the role of 31 lakh elected Panchayat leaders and 2.5 crores SHG Women under DAY-NRLM ineffective Gram Sabha.
• There will be a Public Information Campaign of all programmes in Gram Panchayat office and on Gram Samvad App.
• The structured Gram Sabha meetings with physical presence and presentation by frontline workers will cover the following – Agriculture, Land improvement, Minor irrigation, Animal husbandry, Fisheries, Family Welfare, Women and Child Development, Public distribution system and Maintenance of community assets.
• As part of this Campaign, it is also proposed to complete the exercise of Mission Antyodaya data collection in respect of all Gram Panchayats.