Daily Current Capsules

12th August 2022

Government Schemes
Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U)

What's the NEWS

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the proposal of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) for continuation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-Urban (PMAY-U) up to 31stDecember 2024 wherein financial assistance is to be provided for the completion of already sanctioned 122.69 lakh houses till 31stMarch 2022.

• Housing for All is one of the major flagship programmes being implemented by Government of India to provide all weather pucca houses to all eligible beneficiaries in the urban areas of the country through States/UTs/Central Nodal Agencies.
• The scheme covers the entire urban area of the country, i.e., all statutory towns as per Census 2011 and towns notified subsequently, including Notified Planning/ Development Areas.
• The scheme is being implemented through four verticals: Beneficiary Led Construction/ Enhancement (BLC), Affordable Housing in Partnership (AHP), In-situ Slum Redevelopment (ISSR) and Credit Linked Subsidy Scheme (CLSS).
• While Govt of India provides financial assistance, State Govt/UTs implement the scheme including selection of beneficiaries.
• During the period of 2004-2014, 8.04 lakh houses were completed under Urban Housing Scheme.

Factoids
World Lion Day

What's the NEWS

• The Prime Minister, has lauded the efforts of Lion conservationists on the occasion of World Lion Day.

• Every year August 10 is celebrated as World Lion Day.
• Objective - to raise concerns about the conservation of the growing extinction of this big cat.
• The biggest cats include the Royal Bengal Tiger, Indian Leopard, Clouded Leopard and Snow leopard.
• The history of the day lies in 2013 by Dereck and Beverly Joubert, co-founders of the Bit cat initiative, and National Geographic made a partnership to create World Lion Day.
• In the past 100 years, there has been a significant decrease of around 80 percent in the population of lions.
• The species has been designated as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
• According to data available, there are approximately 30,000 to 100,000 lions left worldwide.
• To ensure the existence of lions, public awareness of the threats they face, protection of natural habitats and building more such habitats are the need of the hour.
• Except for Africa and India, the population of lions has dwindled globally. The number of the wild cats has been on a rise in India for some time.
• In Gujarat's Gir forest, which is home to lions, their population has been increasing gradually.
• In Gir and the larger Saurashtra region, the population of Asiatic lions, a distant relative of the much larger African lions, have gradually increased after initially experiencing a decline.
• The number of these lions has risen from 523 to 674 in a span of five years from 2015 to 2020.

• The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the ratification of amendments to the Constitution of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) as contained in the Eleventh Additional Protocol to the Constitution signed during the 27th Congress of the Universal Postal Union held at Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire) from 9-27 August, 2021.

• The approval enables the Department of Posts, Government of India to have the "Instrument of Ratification" signed by the Hon'ble President of India and have the same deposited with the Director General of the International Bureau of the Universal Postal Union.
• This would fulfil the obligations arising from Article 25 and 30 of the UPU Constitution which provides for ratification of the amendments to the Constitution adopted by a Congress as soon as possible by the member countries.
• The amendments to the Constitution of UPU adopted by the 27th UPU Congress ensure further legal clarity and stability to the Acts of the Union, bring terminological consistencies, resolve many long-standing discrepancies in the text and accommodate provisions for ‘acceptance or approval' of the Acts in consistency with Vienna Conventions on Law of Treaties, 1969.

• It was established by the Treaty of Bern of 1874
• It is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations, in addition to the worldwide postal system.
• The UPU contains four bodies consisting of the Congress, the Council of Administration (CA), the Postal Operations Council (POC) and the International Bureau (IB).
• It also oversees the Telematics and Express Mail Service (EMS) cooperatives.
• Each member agrees to the same terms for conducting international postal duties.
• The UPU's headquarters are located in Bern, Switzerland.

What's the NEWS

• The Election Commission of India hosted a virtual meet of the ‘Asian Regional Forum' on the theme "Making our Elections Inclusive, Accessible and Participative" at Nirvachan Sadan on August 11, 2022.

Health
Indigenous vaccine for Lumpy Skin disease

What's the NEWS

• The Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare launched the indigenous vaccine Lumpi-ProVac^Ind to protect livestock from Lumpy Skin disease.
• The vaccine has been developed by the National Equine Research Center, Hisar (Haryana) in collaboration with the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izzatnagar (Bareilly).

• It infects cattle and water buffalo mainly through vectors such as blood-feeding insects.
• Lumpy Skin Disease (LSD) is caused by a virus called the Capripoxvirus and is "an emerging threat to livestock worldwide". It is genetically related to the goatpox and sheeppox virus family.
• It is not zoonotic, meaning it does not spread from animals to humans, and humans cannot get infected with it.
• The appearance of circular, firm nodes on the animal's hide or skin that look similar to lumps.
• LSD has remained confined to Africa, where it was first discovered in 1929, and parts of West Asia.
• It was first reported in Asia and the Pacific region in 2019 in north west China, Bangladesh and India.
• No treatment is available for the disease so prevention by vaccination is the most effective means of control.

What's the NEWS

• With details of about one lakh plant specimens, IVH is the biggest virtual database of flora in the country
• Herbarium specimens are considered important tools for plant taxonomy, conservation, habitat loss and even climate change
• Prime Minister has recently described Indian Virtual Herbarium as an example of how digital tools can help us connect to our roots.

Know! about it

• Herbarium was an interesting collection of plants and preserved parts of plants.
• Developed by scientists of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), the herbarium was inaugurated by Union Minister of Environment Forest and Climate in Kolkata on July 1. Since then, the portal ivh.bsi.gov.in has had nearly two lakh hits from 55 countries.
• Each record in the digital herbarium includes an image of the preserved plant specimen, scientific name, collection locality, and collection date, collector name, and barcode number.
• The digital herbarium includes features to extract the data State-wise, and users can search plants of their own States, which will help them identify regional plants and in building regional checklists.

Factoids
Peninsular Rock Agama

What's the NEWS

• The Peninsular Rock Agama (Psammophilus dorsalis) which is a type of garden lizard has a strong presence in southern India.
• Habitat loss and other such features of urbanisation have affected the presence of the animal in urban centres.
• A study carried out by researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, undertook to characterise urbanisation in the region and also to understand where the rock agama reside in and around Bengaluru specifically.
• The study, published in Frontiers in Conservation Science, examined several environmental factors that could affect the presence of the lizard and revealed that they are found mainly in rocky places and warm spots.
• Thus, the inference is that conservation efforts must point towards retaining rocky patches even while reviving landscapes by planting trees.

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