Culture
India gets its 39^th World Heritage Site

Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about Rudreswara Temple or Ramappa Temple)
What's the NEWS

• India's nomination of Rudreswara Temple, (also known as the Ramappa Temple) at Palampet, Mulugu district, near Warangal in the state of Telangana has been inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
• The decision was taken at the 44^th session of the World Heritage Committee of UNESCO
• Ramappa temple, a 13th century engineering marvel named after its architect, Ramappa, was proposed by the government as its only nomination for the UNESCO World Heritage site tag for the year 2019.
• The meeting of the World Heritage Committee(WHC) of UNESCO could not be conducted in 2020 and the nominations for 2020 and those for 2021 were discussed in a series of online meetings that are currently underway.

Rudreswara(Ramappa) Temple

• The Rudreswara temple was constructed in 1213 AD during the reign of the Kakatiya Empire by RecharlaRudra, a general of Kakatiya king Ganapati Deva.
• The presiding deity here is Ramalingeswara Swamy. It is also known as the Ramappa temple, after the sculptor who executed the work in the temple for 40 years.
• The temple complexes of Kakatiyas have a distinct style, technology and decoration exhibiting the influence of the Kakatiyan sculptor.
• The temple stands on a 6 feet high star-shaped platform with walls, pillars and ceilings adorned with intricate carvings that attest to the unique skill of the Kakatiyan sculptors.
• The distinct style of Kakatiyas for the gateways to temple complexes, unique only to this region confirm the highly evolved proportions of aesthetics in temple and town gateways in South India.
• European merchants and travelers were mesmerized by the beauty of the temple and one such traveler had remarked that the temple was the "brightest star in the galaxy of medieval temples of the Deccan".

Prelims Factoids
Green Sohra Afforestation Campaign at Sohra (Cherrapunji)
Relevance IN - Prelims ( Home Minister's North East visit - development projects + location based questions)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Home Minister on his Meghalaya visit, launched the Green Sohra Afforestation Campaign at Sohra (Cherrapunji)
• Earlier Cherrapunji used to have rains throughout the year, but due to indiscriminate harvesting in the name of development, the situation has changed.
• An ambitious project to make Cherrapunji green again has started and the entire area of Cherrapunji is going to be adopted by Assam Rifles for the purpose of plantation.

Science and Technology
I-STEM enters Phase-II

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about I-STEM portal) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of S&T)
What's the NEWS

• I-STEM (www.istem.gov.in) is an initiative of Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Govt. of India (PSA, GOI) under the aegis of Prime Minister Science, Technology and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) mission.
• I-STEM project has been accorded extension for five years, until 2026 and enters its second phase with added features.
• The Indian Science Technology and Engineering facilities Map (I-STEM), the national web portal for sharing R&D facilities was formally launched in January 2020 by the Prime Minister

Know! about I-STEM

• The goal of I-STEM is to strengthen the R&D ecosystem of the country by connecting researchers with resources, in part by promoting technologies and scientific equipment development indigenously, and providing necessary supplies and supports to researchers by enabling them an access to existing publicly funded R&D facilities in the country through the I-STEM web portal.
• In the first phase, the portal is listed with more than 20,000 pieces of equipment from 1050 institutions across the country and has more than 20,000 Indian researchers.
• I-STEM portal facilitates researchers to access slots for the use of equipment, as well as to share the details of the outcomes, such as, patents, publications and technologies.
• Under Phase II, the portal will host indigenous technology products listed through a digital catalogue.
• The portal will also provide a platform for the various City Knowledge and Innovation Clusters (https://www.psa.gov.in/st-clusters) supported by the Office of PSA to enhance effective use of R&D infrastructure through leveraging collaboration and partnership built on a shared STI ecosystem.
• It will also host and provide access to selected R&D software required to undertake research projects by students and scientists.
• The I-STEM portal in its new phase will be designed as a dynamic digital platform that will provide boost to research and innovation especially for 2 tier and 3 tier cities and also for the emerging start-up ecosystem.

Social Issues
PM CARES for Children scheme

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about 'PM CARES for Children' scheme ) + Mains ( GS II Social Issues)
What's the NEWS

• Ministry of Women and Child Development has launched the web based portal pmcaresforchildren.in to facilitate submission of applications, identification of children eligible to receive support under the 'PM CARES for Children' scheme and processing of applications for securing benefits to them.
• The module on Child registration and identification of beneficiaries has been made functional.
• The portal shall be regularly updated with necessary information and modules.

Know! about 'PM CARES for Children' scheme

• It was announced by the Prime Minister for supporting children who have lost both parents or surviving parent or legal guardian or adoptive parents due to COVID-19 pandemic.
• The scheme aims to ensure comprehensive care and protection of children who have lost their parents to COVID pandemic, in a sustained manner.
• It enables their wellbeing through health insurance, empower them through education and equip them for self-sufficient existence with financial support of Rs. 10 lakh, on reaching 23 years of age.
• District Magistrates in their States to identify the children eligible for receiving support under the 'PM CARES for Children' scheme

Eligibility:
All children who have lost

• Both parents or
• Surviving parent or
• legal guardian/adoptive parents due to COVID 19 pandemic, starting from 11.03.2020 till the end of pandemic, shall be entitled to benefits under this scheme.

Prelims Factoids
Great Indian Bustards(GIB)

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about GIB and Kutch Bustard Sanctuary)
What's the NEWS

• The government has said there are no Great Indian Bustards in Kutch Bustard Sanctuary in Gujarat
• It had come just three months after the Supreme Court order to power companies to place their overhead powerlines underground in GIB habitat in Rajasthan and Kutch to save the species from going extinct.
• In April 2021, the Supreme Court ordered that all overhead power transmission lines in core and potential GIB habitats in Rajasthan and Gujarat should be undergrounded.

Great Indian Bustards

• GIBs are the largest among the four bustard species found in India, the other three being MacQueen's bustard, lesser florican and the Bengal florican.
• GIBs' historic range included much of the Indian sub-continent but it has now shrunken to just 10 per cent of it.
• Among the heaviest birds with flight, GIBs prefer grasslands as their habitats.
• Being terrestrial birds, they spend most of their time on the ground with occasional flights to go from one part of their habitat to the other.
• They feed on insects, lizards, grass seeds etc.
• GIBs are considered the flagship bird species of grassland and hence barometers of the health of grassland ecosystems.
• Due to the species' smaller population size, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has categorised GIBs as critically endangered, thus on the brink of extinction from the wild.
• It is a Schedule I bird under the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972.

GIB species recovery program

• In 2015, the Central government launched the GIB species recovery program.
• Under this, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Rajasthan forest department have jointly set up conservation breeding centres.
• In these centres, GIB eggs harvested from the wild are incubated artificially and hatchlings raised in controlled environment.

Kutch Bustard Sanctuary or Kachchh Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary

• It is located near Jakhau village in Taluka Abdasa, Gujarat, India.
• This sanctuary is one of the two great Indian bustard sanctuaries in Gujarat; the other one is in Jamnagar.
• It was declared as a sanctuary in July 1992, specifically for the conservation of the great Indian bustard
• The sanctuary presently legally covers a protected area of about 2 square kilometres (0.77 sq mi) of area (202.86 hectares (501.3 acres) of fenced land only and is the smallest sanctuary in the country.

Defence
Essential Defence Services Bill

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about The Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021') + Mains ( GS II Role of executive + Parliament Proceedings)
What's the NEWS

• It aims at preventing the staff of the government-owned ordnance factories from going on strike or any form of agitation.
• The Minister of State for Defence in Lok Sabha introduced ‘The Essential Defence Services Bill, 2021' which seeks to prohibit any form of agitation or strike by anyone engaged in the essential defence services.
• The bill introduced in Lok Sabha mentioned that it aims to provide for the maintenance of the essential defence services in order to secure the security of the country and the life and property of the public at large.

Government Point of View

• It is essential that an uninterrupted supply of the ordnance items to the armed forces is maintained for defence preparedness and that the factories must continue to function without any form of disruptions.

Indian Ordnance Factories

• The Indian Ordnance Factories is the oldest and the largest industrial set up which functions under the Department of Defence Production of the Defence Ministry.
• The factories form an integrated base for the indigenous production of defence hardware and equipment, with the primary objective of self-reliance in equipping the armed forces with state of art battlefield equipment.
• Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), consisting of the Indian Ordnance Factories, is an organisation, under the control of department of defence production (DDP), Ministry of Defence (MoD), Government of India.
• It is engaged in research, development, production, testing, marketing and logistics of a product range in the areas of air, land and sea systems.
• OFB comprises forty-one ordnance factories, nine training institutes, three regional marketing centres and four regional controllerates of safety, which are spread all across the country.
• Every year, 18 March is celebrated as the Ordnance Factory Day in India.
• OFB is the 37th-largest defence equipment manufacturer in the world, 2nd-largest in Asia, and the largest in India.\
• OFB is the world's largest government-operated production organisation ,and the oldest organisation in India

Connect the dots ( June 2020) Essential Defence Services Ordinance

• The Central Government, in June 2020, had announced the corporatization of the Ordnance Factory Board.
• Under it, the 41 factories ammunition and other equipment to the armed forces will become part of seven government-owned corporate entities.
• This has been done to improve the efficiency and accountability of these factories.
• Due to this decision by the central government many federations announced the launch of indefinite strikes.
• To counter the indefinite strike the Essential Defence Services Ordinance was promulgated on June 30.

Governance
India improves ranking in ease of cross-border trade: UN Survey

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about United Nations Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation - report highlights) + Mains ( GS II government policies and interventions)
What's the NEWS

• India has made remarkable progress in ease of cross-border trade, a United Nations survey that tracked 143 economies on key trade facilitation parameters over a two-year period

United Nations Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation (Highlights)

• According to the latest United Nations Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation, India's rank rose from 78.49 per cent in 2019 to 90.32 per cent in 2021.
• The bi-annual survey specifically deals with trade facilitation measures taken by individual countries.
• The results showed that India was one of the best performers in the South and South-West Asia region and the Asia Pacific region.
• India's overall score has also been found to be higher than many of the OECD countries and the average of the European Union.
• Among developed countries, Australia, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand and Belgium have scored more than 93 per cent.
• The survey showed that in South Asia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka were behind India with scores of 64.5 per cent and 60.2 per cent.

United Nations Global Survey on Digital and Sustainable Trade Facilitation (Process)

• The survey tracks 58 measures identified with trade facilitation, such as facilitating electronic submission of declarations and electronic payment of fees and charges and electronic applications for refunds that are viewed as global best practices.
• As per the 2021 survey report, India has scored 100 per cent in transparency, 95.83 per cent in formalities, 88.89 per cent in institutional arrangement and cooperation and 96.30 per cent in paperless trade.

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