Social Issues
TAPAS (Training for Augmenting Productivity and Services) launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about TAPAS) + Mains ( GS II Social issues)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment launched an online portal TAPAS (Training for Augmenting Productivity and Services), developed by the National Institute of Social Defence, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

Know! all about TAPAS

• TAPAS is the initiative of National Institute of Social Defence (NISD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, to provide access to lectures by subject experts, study material and more, but in a manner that it supplements the physical classroom without compromising on the quality of teaching.
• The main objective of introducing the course modules is to impart training and enhance the knowledge and skills for the capacity building of the participants.
• It can be taken up by anyone who wishes to enhance his or her knowledge on the topics and there is no fee for joining.
• The five basic courses are on Drug (Substance) Abuse Prevention, Geriatric/Elderly Care, Care and Management of Dementia, Transgender Issues and on comprehensive course on Social Defence Issues.
• The online medium of learning will enable the Ministry in reaching out to an even larger number of people working in this area of social defence.
• Everyone working in the field of social defence is encouraged to enroll for the course.
• It is an online course and one can utilise this facility to its full potential
• TAPAS is a standard MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) platform with course material such as filmed lectures and e-study material.
• It also includes discussion forums to support and encourage interactions among students and course coordinators.
• There will be a virtual class where an expert or a resource person will give a lecture about the subject with the help of animated info graphics and Power point presentations.
• The participants will be provided with informative material like articles, case studies and other study material on the related topic, which can be downloaded for future reference.
• There is also a discussion forum on the portal on which they can raise their doubts with the course coordinator.

Know! about Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

• MOOCs are free online courses available for anyone to enroll. MOOCs provide an affordable and flexible way to learn new skills, advance your career and deliver quality educational experiences at scale.
• Millions of people around the world use MOOCs to learn for a variety of reasons, including: career development, changing careers, college preparations, supplemental learning, lifelong learning, corporate eLearning & training, and more.

Government Schemes/Initiatives
2^nd Phase of SAMVAD launched

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about SAMVAD) + Mains ( GS II Social issues)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Minister of Women and Child Development launched 2nd phase of SAMVAD programme and commemorated the successful completion of one year of SAMVAD - Support, Advocacy & Mental health interventions for children in Vulnerable circumstances And Distress.

Know! about SAMVAD

• SAMVAD is a National Initiative and Integrated Resource that works in child protection, mental health and psychosocial care.
• SAMVAD's efforts in providing coping mechanism for children in distress by training close to 1 lakh stakeholders comprising of Child Protection Functionaries, tele-counsellors, educators, law professionals among others.
• For the first time SAMVAD will engage with functionaries in Panchayats thereby ushering in a silent revolution in addressing psychosocial challenges amongst vulnerable children
• SAMVAD is slated to begin work with Panchayati Raj systems to integrate child protection and mental health in aspirational districts across the country to facilitate awareness generation and improve service delivery at the grassroot level.
• SAMVAD's new initiatives with regards to mental health and psychosocial care of children in difficult circumstances encompasses a specialized training curriculum on childhood trauma, interventions for children in conflict with the law, forensics in child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health, education and mental health support to children with special needs, protection and care in the context of adoption and foster care and integration of child protection and mental health in the Panchayati Raj systems.

Space Awareness
Chandrayaan-2 orbiter detects water molecules on lunar surface
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the new findings + about Chandrayaan -2 ) + Mains ( GS II awareness in the field of space)
What's the NEWS

• India's ambitious Chandrayaan-2 moon mission may have made a hard landing on the lunar surface in 2019, but the orbiter accompanying it has been providing useful information to scientists back on Earth.

Know! more about the findings

• The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter confirmed the presence of water molecules (H2o) and hydroxyl (OH) on the surface of the moon.
• The initial data clearly demonstrates the presence of widespread lunar hydration and unambiguous detection of OH and H2O signatures between 29 degrees north and 62 degrees north latitude
• The discovery was made by the orbiter's imaging infrared spectrometer (IIRS).
• Plagioclase-rich rocks have been found to have higher OH or possibly H2O molecules when compared to the mare regions, which were found to have more dominance of OH at higher surface temperature
• As per researchers, formation of hydroxyl or water molecules happens due to a process called space weathering. This process is completed when the solar winds blow over the lunar surface.
• Researchers also observed that, brighter sunlit highland regions at higher latitudes of the Moon comprises of higher hydroxyl or possibly water molecules.

The Chandrayaan-2 mission

• It was launched by Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) in July 2019. But Vikram lander on-board the mission crash-landed on the lunar surface just 2.1 km from its destination in September that year. However, its orbiter remains functional.
• The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter, with its eight scientific instruments, will continue its seven-year mission to study the surface of the Moon.
• Chandrayaan-2 was launched with the aim of mapping the variations in lunar surface composition, as well as locating and studying the surface of the Moon for the presence of water.
• A successful moon landing would have made India the fourth country in the world to land a rocket on the moon after the US, the erstwhile USSR, and China, and the first to have landed close to the lunar South Pole.
• Chandrayaan-1 mission had already confirmed the presence of water on the lunar surface.

Environment
Four more sites of India added to Ramsar list as wetlands of International importance.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the four new Ramsar sites + about Ramsar convention + about Wetlands) + Mains ( GS III Environment conservation)
What's the NEWS

• Four more wetlands from India get recognition from the Ramsar Secretariat as Ramsar sites.
• These sites are Thol and Wadhwana from Gujarat and Sultanpur and Bhindawas from Haryana.
• With this, the number of Ramsar sites in India are 46 and the surface area covered by these sites is now 1,083,322 hectares.
• The 46 Ramsar sites in India include the Chilika Lake in Odisha, Keoladeo National Park in Rajasthan, Harike Lake in Punjab, Loktak Lake in Manipur and Wular Lake in Jammu and Kashmir.
• While Haryana gets its first Ramsar sites, Gujarat gets three more after Nalsarovar which was declared in 2012.

Know! about the new wetlands

• Bhindawas Wildlife Sanctuary, the largest wetland in Haryana is a human-made freshwater wetland.
• Over 250 bird species use the sanctuary throughout the year as a resting and roosting site.
• The site supports more than ten globally threatened species including the endangered Egyptian Vulture, Steppe Eagle, Pallas's Fish Eagle, and Black-bellied Tern.
• Sultanpur National Park from Haryana supports more than 220 species of resident, winter migratory and local migratory waterbirds at critical stages of their life cycles.
• More than ten of these are globally threatened, including the critically endangered sociable lapwing, and the endangered Egyptian Vulture, Saker Falcon, Pallas's Fish Eagle and Black-bellied Tern.
• Thol Lake Wildlife Sanctuary from Gujarat lies on the Central Asian Flyway and more than 320 bird species can be found here.
• The wetland supports more 30 threatened waterbird species, such as the critically endangered White-rumped Vulture and Sociable Lapwing , and the vulnerable Sarus Crane, Common Pochard and Lesser White-fronted Goose.
• Wadhvana Wetland from Gujarat is internationally important for its birdlife as it provides wintering ground to migratory waterbirds, including over 80 species that migrate on the Central Asian Flyway.
• They include some threatened or near-threatened species such as the endangered Pallas's fish-Eagle, the vulnerable Common Pochard, and the near-threatened Dalmatian Pelican, Grey-headed Fish-eagle and Ferruginous Duck.

Ramsar list

• The aim of the Ramsar list is to develop and maintain an international network of wetlands which are important for the conservation of global biological diversity and for sustaining human life through the maintenance of their ecosystem components, processes and benefits.

Wetlands

• Wetlands provide a wide range of important resources and ecosystem services such as food, water, fibre, groundwater recharge, water purification, flood moderation, erosion control and climate regulation.
• They are, in fact, are a major source of water and our main supply of freshwater comes from an array of wetlands which help soak rainfall and recharge groundwater.

Ramsar Convention

• The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and wise use of wetlands.
• It is named after the Iranian city of Ramsar, on the Caspian Sea, where the treaty was signed on February 2, 1971.
• It the first modern treaty between nations aimed at conserving natural resources.
• It is also known as the Convention on Wetlands.
• The Ramsar Convention's broad aims are to halt the worldwide loss of wetlands and to conserve, through wise use and management, those that remain.
• This requires international cooperation, policy making, capacity building and technology transfer.
• Under the Ramsar Convention, a wide variety of natural and human-made habitat types ranging from rivers to coral reefs can be classified as wetlands.
• Wetlands include swamps, marshes, billabongs, lakes, salt marshes, mudflats, mangroves, coral reefs, fens, peat bogs, or bodies of water - whether natural or artificial, permanent or temporary.
• Water within these areas can be static or flowing; fresh, brackish or saline; and can include inland rivers and coastal or marine water to a depth of six metres at low tide. There are even underground wetlands.

Prelims Factoids
Centenary Celebration of Baba Saheb Purandare

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Baba Saheb Purandare)
What's the NEWS

• Prime Minister conveyed best wishes to writer and historian Baba Saheb Purandare on entering the 100th year of his life.

Know! all about Balwant Moreshwar Purandare

• He is a writer and theatre personality from Maharashtra, India.
• His works are mostly based on the events related to the life of Shivaji, the 17th-century founder of the Maratha Empire; as a result he is termed as Shiv-Shahir
• Born on July 29, 1922, at Saswad near Poona (now, Pune), Purandare was fascinated by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj from an early age and wrote essays and stories which were later published in a book form, 'Thinagya' (Sparks).
• Over eight decades of his writing and theatre career, Purandare delivered more than 12,000 lectures on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, studied all the forts and history of the Maratha Empire, making him an authority on the subject.
• He penned and directed a historical play Jaanta Raja (1985) a theatrical magnum opus performed by over 200 artistes, translated and enacted in five languages
• Among his prominent works are the monumental two-volume ' Raje Shivchhatrapati', 'Jaanta Raja', 'Maharaj', 'Shelarkhind', 'Gadkot Kille', 'Agra', 'Lal Mahal', 'Purandar', 'Rajgad', 'Panhalgad', 'Sinhagad', 'Pratapgad', 'Purandaryanchi Daulat', 'Mujaryache Mankari', 'Fulwanti', 'Savitri' and 'Kalawantinicha Sajja'.
• Baba Saheb Purandare has been honored with Padma Vibhushan in 2019, the then Maharashtra Government decorated him with Maharashtra Bhushan Award in 2015.
• Madhya Pradesh Government also saluted him by awarding him Kalidas award.

Economy
Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) initiative

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about ONDC initiative) + Mains ( GS II governance + GS III financial inclusion Economic development)
What's the NEWS

• The Union Minister of Commerce & Industry ay chaired a meeting for the review of the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) initiative of DPIIT.

Know! about Open Network for Digital Commerce christened ONDC

• It is globally first-of-its-kind initiative that aims to democratise Digital Commerce, moving it from a platform-centric model to an open-network.
• As UPI is to the digital payment domain, ONDC is to e-commerce in India.
• ONDC will enable, buyers and sellers to be digitally visible and transact through an open network. no matter what platform/application they use.
• ONDC will empower merchants and consumers by breaking silos to form a single network to drive innovation and scale, transforming all businesses from retail goods, food to mobility
• Advisory Council was constituted on July 5 and its first meeting was convened on July 16, 2021.
• The Advisory Council adopted its role to guide and mentor design, implementation and national rollout of ONDC in addition to the scope of the erstwhile Steering Committee.
• The Advisory Council discussed the key design elements national rollout.
• Its recommendations have been incorporated in the implementation plan developed.

Other Features of ONDC
- ONDC shall take all measures to ensure confidentiality & privacy of data in the network
- ONDC shall not mandate sharing of any transaction-level data by participants with ONDC.
- ONDC will work with its participants to publish anonymised aggregate metrics on network performance without compromising on confidentiality and privacy
- ONDC will be compliant with the Information Technology Act, 2000 and designed for compliance with the emerging Personal Data Protection Bill.

How INGC will operate?

• In addition to establishing ONDC to manage the Open Network the Government may consider establishing an Independent Regulatory Authority for eCommerce (such as SEBI for Capital Market).
• ONDC shall initially give special attention help onboard small and medium players.
• ONDC to plan for a well developed Information, Education & Communication campaign to educate, encourage and to address any apprehensions of various network participants.
• ONDC should evolve over time as a self-sustaining entity generating income for its operations and surplus for continuous investment in technology, processes and network development.
• This is very workable option considering the significant benefits it will extend to the ecosystem players

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