Defence
Dare to Dream 2.0
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Dare to Dream 2.0 Scheme)
What's the NEWS

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has launched its innovation contest ‘Dare to Dream 2.0' on the 5th death anniversary of former President and noted scientist Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

Know! about Dare to Dream 2.0

• The scheme is being launched for emerging technologies to promote the individuals & startups for innovation in defence and aerospace technologies in the country after the call of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat' given by Prime Minister

• The ‘Dare to Dream 2.0' is an open challenge to promote the innovators and startups of the country.

• The winners will be decided after due evaluation by an expert committee. Award money, up to Rs 10 lakh for startup and Rs five lakh to individual category, will be given to the winners.

Prelims Factoids
BIS Mobile App ‘BIS-Care'
Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Mobile App ‘BIS-Care' and its applications and facts about other three portals)
What's the NEWS

• Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution launched the Bureau of Indian Standard's Mobile App ‘BIS-Care' and three portals - the Standardization, Conformity Assessment and Training Portals of e-BIS on www.manakonline.in for consumers.
• Know! about the mobile app BIS-Care and several steps taken by the government to protect the interests of consumers
• Consumers can check the authenticity of the ISI-marked and hallmarked products and lodge complaints using this app.
• BIS is strengthening its capacity of enforcement by implementation of e-BIS, an integrated portal covering all its functions, enlisting the services of outside agencies for factory and market surveillance and development of mobile app-based and AI-enabled surveillance methods.
• BIS is also developing a portal on Consumer Engagement, which will facilitate the online registration of Consumer Groups, submission of proposals and approval thereof, and complaint management.

Know! about BIS

• The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) is the national Standards Body of India working under the aegis of Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Government of India.
• It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 1986 which came into effect on 23 December 1986.
• The Minister in charge of the Ministry or Department having administrative control of the BIS is the ex-officio President of the BIS.

Environment
Global Tiger Day.

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about Global tiger day and facts related to it +All India Tiger Estimation 2018 highlights) + Mains ( GS III Environment conservation)
What's the NEWS

• On the eve of Global Tiger Day,2020, Union Environment Minister, Shri Prakash Javadekar released the detailed report of the fourth All India Tiger Estimation-2018.

Know! about Global Tiger Day

• The Heads of the Governments of Tiger Range countries at St. Petersburg, Russia, had resolved to double tiger numbers across their global range by 2022 by signing the St. Petersburg declaration on tiger conservation.
• During the said meeting it was also decided to celebrate July 29 as Global Tiger Day across the world, which is since, being celebrated to spread and generate awareness on tiger conservation.
• It was during this day last year, when the Prime Minister declared to the world India's fulfilment of its resolve to double tiger numbers, four years in advance to the target year of 2022 as decided during the St. Petersburg declaration on tiger conservation in Russia in 2010. India now has nearly 70% of the global tiger population.

All India Tiger Estimation 2018

• The fourth cycle of the All India Tiger Estimation 2018 estimated 2,967 tigers or 75 per cent of the global tiger population in the nation.
• For the survey, camera traps were placed at 26,838 locations across 141 different sites.
• From these photographs (from camera traps), 2,461 individual tigers (excluding cubs) were identified using stripe-pattern-recognition software
• The 2018 All India Tiger estimation had found 2967 tigers in the country, compared to 2,226 in 2014.
• The fourth iteration of the survey - conducted in 2018-19 - was the most comprehensive to date, in terms of both resource and data amassed.
• A population estimation of tigers is created by combining the two types of data - the tigers photographed and identified and the non-photographed ones whose numbers are estimated using software.

Know! the highlights of Tiger Census 2018

• On International Tiger Day 2019, July 29, PM Narendra Modi released the tiger estimation figures in India
• The country had achieved its target of doubling its number of tigers an incredible four years earlier than the given deadline.
• India has 2,967 tigers - a reported growth of 33% in the fourth cycle of the Tiger Census which has been conducted every four years since 2006.
• In 2006, the census showed that the number of tigers in India was only 1,411. In the next cycle of 2010, the numbers grew to 1,706, and in 2014, the tiger numbers grew to 2,226.
• As per the Tiger Census of 2018, the state of Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of tigers at 526. It is followed by Karnataka with 524 tigers and Uttarakhand at 442 tigers.
• The states of Chhattisgarh and Mizoram saw a decline in tiger numbers while Odisha maintained its population.undertaken using the best available science, technology and analytical tools.
• The M-STrIPES app, CaTRAT software and the Extract Compare programs made this tiger census the most accurate in history.
• The 2018 tiger census was quite a big upgrade from the previous three cycles as it was

Know! about Tigers

• Tigers are scattered among Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russian Federation, Thailand and Vietnam.
• India's five tiger landscapes are: Shivalik Hills and Gangetic Plains, Central Indian Landscape and Eastern Ghats, Western Ghats, North-East Hills and Brahmaputra Plains, and the Sundarbans.
  
  

Global Tiger Day

• World Tiger Day is celebrated on July 29 every year to raise awareness about a gradual decline in tiger population leaving them on the brink of extinction, and to encourage tiger conservation.
• International Tiger Day was established in 2010 at Saint Petersburg Tiger Summit in Russia. At the summit, governments of tiger-populated countries vowed to double tiger population by 2020.
• Around 3,900 tigers remain in the wild across the globe, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
• Since the beginning of the 20th century, over 95 per cent of the world's tiger population has been lost.
• There are different species of tigers - Siberian tigers, Bengal tigers, Indochinese tigers, Malayan tigers and South China tigers.
• The Bengal tiger is found primarily in India, with smaller a population of them in Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China and Myanmar as well.

Know! about Project Tiger

• The Government of India has taken a pioneering initiative for conserving its national animal, the tiger, by launching the ‘Project Tiger' in 1973.
• The tiger reserves are constituted on a core/buffer strategy. The core areas have the legal status of a national park or a sanctuary, whereas the buffer or peripheral areas are a mix of forest and non-forest land, managed as a multiple use area.
• The Project Tiger aims to foster an exclusive tiger agenda in the core areas of tiger reserves, with an inclusive people oriented agenda in the buffer.

Know! about NTCA

• The National Tiger Conservation Authority is a statutory body under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change constituted under enabling provisions of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972,
•  ‘Project Tiger' is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme of the Environment, Forests and Climate Change, providing funding support to tiger range States, for in-situ conservation of tigers in designated tiger reserves, and has put the endangered tiger on an assured path of recovery by saving it from extinction, as revealed by the recent findings of the All India tiger estimation using the refined methodology.

Science and Technology
Foundation Day of Ministry of Earth Sciences

Relevance IN - Prelims ( about MoES and its various initiatives) + Mains ( GS III awareness in the field of science and technology)
Know! the genesis of MoES

• The Department of Ocean Development (DOD) was created in July 1981
• In February, 2006, the Government notified the Department as the Ministry of Ocean Development .
• The Government of India further reorganized the Ministry of Ocean Development and the new Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) came
• The Ministry of Earth Sciences was formed in the year 2006 from a merger of the India Meteorological Department (IMD),the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune, and Earth Risk Evaluation Centre (EREC), and the Ministry of Ocean Development.
• The Government also approved the setting up of Earth Commission on the pattern of Space Commission and Atomic Energy Commission.

Know the initiative and steps taken by MoES

• On the occasion of its foundation day MoES-Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet) and mobile App "Mausam" for India Meteorological Department, were launched.

During the next five years, MoES has ambitious plans of
(i) development of a manned submersible to carry 3 scientists to a depth of 6000 metres in the ocean with suit of scientific sensors and tools
(ii) development of an Integrated Mining System will be developed for mining Polymetallic Nodules from 6000 m depth,
(iii) Increase the number of Doppler Weather Radars from the current number of 28 to about 50,
(iv) Integrated meteorological services for the north-eastern region
(v) Augment the existing High Performance Computing System from 10 PFlops to about 40 PFLops and
(vi) Improve the horizontal resolution of the weather forecast model from existing 12 km to 5 km to help farmers in obtaining block level forecasts."
Other achievements

• MoES has developed and commissioned an Integrated Flood Warning System for Mumbai (IFLOWS-Mumbai) in close coordination with Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, Govt of Maharashtra. to aid in the mitigation activities of the flood prone city of Mumbai.
• Two new Doppler Weather Radars (DWR)s were commissioned at Sonmarg, J&K & Mukteshwar under the Integrated Himalayan Meteorology Programme (IHMP).
• MoES is installing six new water desalinations plants in Lakshadweep islands,with the help of for the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation and Lakshadweep administration.
• A new Coastal Research Vessel "SAGAR ANVESHIKA" was commissioned in February 2020.
• This is by far one of the most remarkable developments in the history of India's coastal research with India's private sector partnering the Government and boosting the vision of ‘Make in India'.

Initiatives launched by MoES
Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet)

• Under the Digital India initiative of Government of India, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) aims to develop a World-Class Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet).

Know! about Knowledge Resource Centre Network (KRCNet).

• The traditional libraries of the MoES system will be upgraded into a top-notch Knowledge Resource Centres (KRC).
• KRCs will be connected with each other and integrated into the KRCNet portal. It will be a single point entry to the intellectual world of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES).
• The resources and services of MoES system will be accessible 24X7 through a one point dynamic, updated and integrated KRCNet portal.

Ministry of Earth Sciences launches Mobile App "Mausam" for India Meteorological Department

• India Meteorological Department, Ministry of Earth Sciences has taken various initiatives in recent years for improvement in dissemination of weather forecast and warning services based on latest tools and technologies.
• To further enhance this initiative, Ministry of Earth Sciences launched the mobile App "Mausam" for India Meteorological Department.

Know! about the Mobile app

• This Mobile App is dedicated to the general public and designed to communicate the weather information and forecasts in a lucid manner without technical jargons.
• Users can access observed weather, forecasts, radar images and be proactively warned of impending weather events.
• The Mausam mobile app will be an important tool for dissemination of weather information and warnings in an attractive and user friendly manner which will meet the requirements of public.
• The mobile app has been designed and developed jointly by ICRISAT's Digital Agriculture & Youth (DAY) team, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune and India Meteorological Department
• The MAUSAM mobile App has the following 5 services:

• Current Weather -
• Nowcast
• City Forecast
• Warnings
• Radar products

Atmospheric Research Testbeds

• On the Setting up of Atmospheric Research Testbeds, a unique facility in Tropics will be launched in 2021 with the first phase of instrumentation.
• This open field observatory is planned to be spread over 100 acres of land (50 km away from Bhopal) and is proposed for a better understanding of the monsoon clouds and land surface processes.
• This centre will have state-of-the-art observational systems such as RADARS, WIND PROFILERS, UAVs etc.

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