Mission Bhagiratha
- It is being implemented in the State of Telangana to ensure safe and sustainable piped drinking water supply from surface water sources.
- It is aimed at providing tap connection to every household, the surface water sources being Krishna and Godavari Basin.
- It involves integration of all existing water supply schemes and ongoing drinking water projects.
- Water will also be provided to Industrial requirements.
- There is also a plan to install optical fibre pipelines using the extensive water pipeline network being laid under the mission.
- This will save the state a large amount of funds that would have been needed to install a separate OFC network.
- This Telangana model is also being emulated in Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra states.
International Conference on Dialogue of Civilisation
- The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in collaboration with National Geographic Society is hosting an “International Conference on Dialogue of Civilizations” at Delhi, Gandhinagar and Dholavira.
- The first conference of this series was inaugurated in Guatemala in 2013 followed by Turkey in 2014 and China in 2015.
- The present conference is the fourth in this series, with the final dialogue planned in Egypt.
- It was launched with an objective to encourage scholarly and public discourse about the five ancient, literate civilizations of the world, i.e. Egypt, Mesopotamia, South Asia, China and Mesoamerica.
Project Loon
- Project Loon developed by Google with the mission of providing Internet access to rural and remote areas.
- The project uses high-altitude balloons placed in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 18 km to create an aerial wireless network.
- It helps to improve communication during natural disasters to affected regions.
- It was recently deployed in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP)
- It is the world’s first initiative that aims to conserve high mountain ecosystems by protecting snow leopard in the region.
- It unites all 12 range country governments, nongovernmental and inter-governmental organisations, local communities, private sector.
- Arunachal Pradesh is one of the 22 priority landscapes of the GSLEP.
- Recently, Scientists have obtained the first evidence of presence of Snow leopard in Community Conserved Area (CCA) in Arunachal Pradesh.
- In 2004, WWF-India introduced the concept of CCAs in the State to empower local communities to become active decision-makers and implement conservation initiatives.
- Snow leopard, native of central and south Asia, is listed as a ‘vulnerable’ category in the Red List of IUCN.
- 12 range countries - Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Nepal Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Emission Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR)
- The EDGAR information system is a joint project of the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).
- It stores global emission inventories of greenhouse gases and air pollutants from anthropogenic sources both on a per country and region basis as well as on a grid.
- According to its data, India’s emissions have gone up by 4.7% in 2016.
- For most major GHG emitters in the world, the emission figures have gone down, barring India and Indonesia.
- U.S. saw a fall of 2%, the Russian Federation 2.1%, Brazil 6.1%, China 0.3%, and, within the European Union, the United Kingdom 6.4%.
INS Trishul
- INS Trishul belongs to Talwar class of frigates.
- The Talwar-class guided missile frigate use stealth technologies and a special hull design to ensure a reduced radar cross section.
- Recently, it thwarted a piracy attempt near Gulf of Aden.
Hurricane Nate
- It is the fourth major storm to strike the United States in less than two months after Hurricane Harvey, Irma and Maria.
- It has weakened to tropical storm after attaining a wind speed of 70 miles per hour (110 km per hour).
Source: PIB, The Hindu, BusinessLine
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