Relevance IN - Prelims (about agneeprastha + about chakra)
What's the NEWS

• Foundation Stone for a Missile Park "AGNEEPRASTHA" was laid at INS Kalinga

Know! about agneeprastha

• The Missile Park ‘AGNEEPRASTHA' once completed will be dedicated to all the Officers, Sailors and Support Staff of INS Kalinga, who have served in this premier op-support Base of the ENC since its establishment in 1981.
• The Park also commemorates the award of the prestigious Unit Citation to INS Kalinga for the year 2018-19.
• ‘AGNEEPRASTHA' aims to capture glimpses of Missile History of INS Kalinga since 1981 till date.
• The Missile Park has been set up with a replica of missiles and Ground Support Equipment (GSE) that showcase the evolution of missiles handled by the unit.
• The exhibits have been created from scrap / obsolete inventory which have been reconditioned in-house.
• The main attraction is P-70 'Ametist', an underwater launched anti-ship missile from the arsenal of the old 'Chakra' (Charlie-1 submarine) which was in service with IN during 1988-91.

Know! about INS Kalinga

• INS Kalinga is a premier Naval Establishment located on the Visakhapatnam - Bheemunipatnam beach road.
• It is about 25 kilometers from the city and 40 kilometers from the Naval Base. INS Kalinga was commissioned in 21 Nov 1985.
• It is an Indian Navy establishment reporting to the Eastern Naval Command.
• It is responsible for preparing, storing and delivering advanced missiles to ships of the Eastern Fleet.

Know! about Chakra (Charlie-1 submarine)

• K-43 was a Charlie-class nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine operated by the Soviet and Indian navies.
• It was built between 1964 and 1967 and was commissioned into the Soviet navy on 5 November 1967.
• It later served as INS Chakra in the Indian Navy from 1988 to 1991.
• The submarine was transferred for helping train the Indian Navy in operating nuclear submarines.
• The lease of Chakra reportedly helped India gain first-hand experience in handling a nuclear submarine that helped them build the Arihant class of nuclear submarines.

Social Issues
National Career Service portal

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about NCS and its objective) + Mains ( GS II Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation
What's the NEWS

• The Ministry of Labour and Employment under its National Career Service (NCS) project has now started offering free online "Career Skills Training" in partnership with TCS ION for its registered job-seekers.

Know! about National Career Service (NCS) project

• National Career Service is a Five Year Mission Mode Project launched in July, 2015.
• The project is being implemented by the Directorate General of Employment, Ministry of Labour & Employment.
• National Career Service (NCS) is a one-stop solution that provides a wide array of employment and career related services to the citizens of India.
• It works towards bridging the gap between jobseekers and employers, candidates seeking training and career guidance, agencies providing training and career counselling.
• The NCS project reaches out to the people of this country through its three essential pillars i.e.

1. ICT based portal (NCS portal)
2. Model Career Centers (set up across the country)
3. Interlinkage with all the states through employment exchanges.

• The Ministry is implementing the NCS Project for transformation of the National Employment Service to provide a variety of employment related services like job search, job matching, career counselling, vocational guidance, information on skill development courses, apprenticeship, internships etc through an on-line portal (www.ncs.gov.in).
• There are around 1 crore active job seekers and 54 thousand active employers registered on NCS and around 73 lakh vacancies have been mobilized through the portal so far

Tribal Affairs
Inclusion of 23 additional Minor Forest produce items in Minimum Support Price List

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about the role of MFP and MSP + TRIFED) + Mains ( GS II Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes
What's the NEWS

• Ministry of Tribal Affairs has announced Inclusion of 23 additional Minor Forest Produce (MFP) items and stipulation of their Minimum Support Price (MSP)
• They include Van Tulsi seeds, Van Jeera, Mushroom, Black Rice and Johar Rice among others.

Know! about the Scheme (The MSP for MFP scheme)

• This has been done under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme titled "Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and development of value chain of MFP".
• The Scheme was introduced in 2011 to provide a social safety net to the underprivileged forest dwellers, and to aid in their empowerment.
• This decision enhancing the coverage from 50 to 73 items comes in view of the exceptional and very difficult circumstances currently prevailing in the country
• The Ministry has provided flexibility to States to fix MSP upto 10% higher or lower than MSP declared by the Government.

Know! the role of TRIFED

• TRIFED, as the apex national organisation involved in the improvement of the livelihood and empowerment of these tribal people, is the nodal agency for the implementation of the scheme.
• The Scheme has been a resounding success in offering basic support to the tribal gatherers and has helped in improving their lives.
• 1,126 Vandhan Kendras have been set up as Tribal start-ups onboarding over 3.6 Lakhs beneficiaries.

Know! about Minor Forest Produce

• Timber, charcoal, caoutchouc, catechu, wood-oil, resin, natural varnish, bark, lac, mahua flowers, mahua seeds, kuth and myrobalans.
• Trees and leaves, flowers and fruits, and all other parts or produce of trees.
• Plants, which may include grass, creepers, reeds and moss, and all parts or produce of such plants (but not trees).
• Wild animals and skins, tusks, horns, bones, silk, cocoons, honey and wax, and all other parts or produce of animals.
• Peat, surface oil, rock and minerals, and all products of mines or quarries.

Environment
World Dugong Day 2020

Relevance IN - Prelims ( all about Dugong)
What's the NEWS

• The 'World Dugong Day' is being celebrated on May 28, 2020
• Theme - Save dugong Save livelihood
• The dugong, commonly known as the sea cow

Know! about World Dugong Day on May 28, 2020.

• Dugong are an endangered marine species like sea turtles, seahorses, sea cucumbers and others.
• They are protected in India under Schedule I of the Wild (Life) Protection Act, 1972. + IUCN Status: Vulnerable
• There were just 250 dugongs in the Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat according to the 2013 survey report of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI).
• The dugongs are an important part of the marine ecosystem and their depletion will have effects all the way up the food chain

Know! the threats to dugongs

• Dugongs graze on seagrass, especially young shoots and roots in shallow coastal waters.
• The loss of seagrass beds due to ocean floor trawling was the most important factor behind dwindling dugong populations in many parts of the world
• Human activities such as the destruction and modification of habitat, pollution, rampant illegal fishing activities, vessel strikes, unsustainable hunting or poaching and unplanned tourism are the main threats to dugongs.

Dugongs Habitat

• Hundreds of dugongs inhabited waters off the Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh coasts two centuries back. But they are extinct in these areas now
• Seagrass in Odisha's Chilika lake is a proper habitat for dugongs.

Connect to the Past (Feb 2020)

• The 13^th Conference of Parties (CoP) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), an environmental treaty under the aegis of the United Nations Environment Programme, was hosted by India from February 17-22, 2020 at Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
• The Government of India is a signatory to the CMS since 1983.
• India has signed non-legally binding Memorandums of Understanding with CMS on the conservation and management of Siberian Cranes (1998), Marine Turtles (2007), Dugongs (2008) and Raptors (2016),

• Proper conservation is the only way to save dugongs from extinction. Conservation in other places like Australia has seen their population crossing 85,000

Economy
NPCI launches AI virtual assistant Pai

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Pai + about NPCI and its role in financial inclusion) + Mains ( GS III Economic development)
What's the NEWS

• National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched an artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot, Pai
• The objective is to create awareness around its products like FASTag, RuPay, UPI, AePS on a real time basis.
• This is yet another NPCI's initiative to improve digital financial inclusion in India.
• The AI virtual assistant, PAi is available round the clock helping users with access to accurate information on NPCI products.
• Customers can ask their queries in English and Hindi, via text or voice on the websites of NPCI, RuPay, and UPI Chalega.
• Through PAi, users get verified automated responses to their queries on all NPCI's products.

Know! about NPCI

• NPCI was incorporated in 2008 as an umbrella organization for operating retail payments and settlement systems in India.
• It is an initiative of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
• It has been incorporated as a Not for Profit Company under the provisions of Companies Act 2013.
• NPCI has created a robust payment and settlement infrastructure in the country.
• It has changed the way payments are made in India through a bouquet of retail payment products such as RuPay card, Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM), BHIM Aadhaar, National Electronic Toll Collection (NETC Fastag) and Bharat BillPay.
  
  

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