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ART AND CULTURE

1. POCHAMPALLY VILLAGE

THE CONTEXT: The Pochampally Village in Telangana State has been selected as one of the best Tourism Villages by the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).

THE EXPLANATION:

• The prestigious award will be given on the occasion of the 24th session of the UNWTO General Assembly on 2nd December 2021 in Madrid, Spain.
• The Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO Pilot initiative aims to award those villages which are outstanding examples of rural destinations and showcase good practices in line with its specified nine evaluation areas.
• It also aims to support villages to enhance their rural tourism potential through training and access to opportunities for improvement.
• The Ministry of Tourism recommended three villages for the UNWTO Best Tourism Village entry from India. These were Kongthong in Meghalaya, Ladhpura Khas, Madhya Pradesh and Pochampally in Telangana. Pochampally, was awarded by UNWTO.

ABOUT POCHAMPALLY

• Pochampally, 50 Kms from Hyderabad, is a town in Nalgonda district of Telangana and is often referred to as the Silk City of India for the exquisite sarees that are woven through a unique style called Ikat.
• This style, Pochampally Ikat, received a Geographical Indicator (GI Status) in 2004.
• Ikat is a Malaysian, Indonesian word that means “Tie and Dye”. Ikat involves the process of wrapping (or tying) and dyeing sections of bundled yarn to a predetermined colour pattern before they are woven.
• The dye penetrates into exposed sections while the wrapped section remains undyed. This pattern formed by the yarn in this process is woven into fabric.
• Pochampally is also known as Bhoodan Pochampally to commemorate the Bhoodan Movement that was launched by Acharya Vinobha Bhave from this village on April 18th, 1951.

SOURCE: PIB

2. KARTARPUR CORRIDOR OPENS

THE CONTEXT: The Indian government said it was re-opening the Kartarpur corridor that connects Sikh shrines in India and Pakistan, given the decline in covid-19 cases.

ABOUT KARTARPUR CORRIDOR

• Guru Nanak is the founder and first Guru of Sikhism.
• He was born in 1469 at Talwandi Rai Bhoe near Lahore. The place is renamed later as Nankana Sahib.
• He undertook preaching tours, also called Udasis, to spread his message.
• In the later years of his life, Guru Nanak settled down at the township of Kartarpur, on the banks of river Ravi in Punjab.
• Kartarpur Corridor connects the Dera Baba Nanak Sahib Gurdwara in the India’s state of Punjab to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur shrine in Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab province.
• It runs across over Ravi River.
• The Gurdwara Darbar Sahib was ordered by the Maharaja of Patiala between 1921-1929.
• Guru Nanak died at the age of 70. He appointed Bhai Lena as his successor and renamed him, Guru Angad.

SOURCE : TH

INDIAN ECONOMY

3. COUNTRY’S FIRST FISHERIES BUSINESS INCUBATOR

THE CONTEXT: Union Minister of Fisheries inaugurated the country’s first-of-its-kind, a dedicated business incubator to be known as LINAC- NCDC Fisheries Business Incubation Centre (LlFlC) in Haryana’s Gurugram costing Rs. 3.23 crore to nurture fisheries start-ups under real market-led conditions.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), an implementing agency for the LIFIC, has identified the first batch of ten incubatees from four states—Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
• Out of them, 6 are from newly-created Fish Farmers Producer Organizations with the support of the financial grant under the PMMSY.
• Fisheries is a sunrise industry in India, growing at a 7 per cent rate annually.
• The PM has set a goal of 22 million tonnes of fish production and export to the tune of Rs one lakh crore by 2025.
• It is a very tall order to be achieved within next four years given that presently, fish production is 130  lakh tones and export worth Rs 46,000 crore.
• Overall, there are around 30,000 cooperatives in the fisheries sector.

 SOURCE: PIB                       

4. 20% USW’S REGISTERED WITH E-SHARM PORTAL

THE CONTEXT: About 7.7 crore unorganised sector workers, accounting for 20% of the targeted 38.37 crore workers, across the country had registered on the e-Sharm portal.

THE EXPLANATION:

• The e-Sharm portal is the first centralised database of unorganised workers nationwide seeded with Aadhaar.
• Odisha with the achievement of 87% of the targeted registrations emerged on the top, followed by West Bengal (65%), Chhattisgarh (33%), Jharkhand (31%) and Bihar (25%).
• The response to registration on the e-Sharm portal in these states could be an indication of the suffering faced by the unorganised sector and migrant workers in the aftermath of lockdown and restrictions imposed due to COVID-19.
• For the first time with the e-Sharm portal, the Union government will have a centralised database with Aadhaar numbers seeded of migrant workers, gig workers, agricultural workers, Anganwadi workers, street vendors, domestic workers, among other unorganised sector workers. So far there has been no such database for unorganised sector workers.
• Only data on organised sector workers is available through the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation.
• With the conception of the e-Sharm portal, the government claims that will be closer to providing a universal account number and an e-Sharm Card to unorganised workers. Efforts are on to link this number with social security schemes in the future.
• For now, the government has already announced its intention to link accidental insurance with registration on the e-Sharm portal. According to this, if a registered worker meets with an accident, she will be eligible for Rs 2 lakh on death or permanent disability, and Rs 1 lakh on partial disability.
• The government has set the deadline to complete the registration of 38.37 crore informal sector workers across the country by March 2022.

 SOURCE: TheWire                     

INTERNAL SECURITY

5. INDIAN OCEAN NAVAL SYMPOSIUM

THE CONTEXT:   The 7^th edition of the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) Conclave of Chiefs is being hosted by French Navy in Paris from 15 – 16 Nov 21.

ABOUT IONS

• IONS was conceived by the Indian Navy in 2008 as a forum that seeks to enhance maritime cooperation among Navies of the littoral states of the Indian Ocean Region by providing an open and inclusive platform for discussions on regionally relevant maritime issues that would lead to a common understanding on the way ahead.
• The inaugural edition of IONS was held in Feb 2008 in New Delhi, with the Indian Navy as the Chair for two years. The IONS Chair is presently held with France.

SOURCE: PIB

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

6. RUSSIAN ASAT TEST

THE CONTEXT:  Russia has carried out a Direct-Ascent Anti-Satellite (DA-ASAT) test by shooting down an old satellite on Monday which has created huge debris in the low earth orbit.

THE EXPLANATION:

• According to the US space command, Russia has conducted the DA-ASAT test to shoot down an old Soviet Tselina-D SIGINT satellite, Kosmos-1408, which was launched in 1982 and had been dead for a long time.
• While Russia has previously tested ASAT weapons, the DA-ASAT is more advanced and similar to the ones the US has in its inventory.
• ASAT weapon gives the capability to destroy satellites in orbit disrupting the communications and surveillance capabilities of adversaries. Only a handful of countries have successfully demonstrated ASAT capability – China, India, Russia and U.S.
• Initial assessment by USSPACECOM is that the debris will remain in orbit for years and potentially for decades, posing a significant risk to the crew on the International Space Station and other human spaceflight activities, as well as multiple countries’ satellites.
• USSPACECOM continues to monitor the trajectory of the debris and will work to ensure all space-faring nations have the information necessary to safeguard their on-orbit activities if impacted by the debris cloud, a service the United States provides to the world, to include Russia and China.

 SOURCE: TH

THE PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS:

Q1. Consider the following statements:

1. United Nations World Tourism Organisation was formed in 1975.
2. Its headquarters is located in Rome, Italy.
3. Tourism Villages is a global initiative of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.
4. Pochampally village in Telangana is selected as one of the best Tourism Villages in 2021.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

a) 1 and 3 only

b) 1, 2 and 3 only

c) 1, 3 and 4 only

d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

ANSWER FOR NOVEMBER 16^th, 2021 PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTIONS

Q1. Answer: D

Explanation:

• Birsa Munda was an Indian tribal freedom fighter, religious leader, and folk hero who belonged to the Munda tribe.
• He is also known as ‘Dharti Abba’ or the Earth Father.
• He started the faith of ‘Birsait’. He wanted to reform the tribal society and so, he urged them to let go of beliefs in witchcraft and instead, stressed the importance of prayer, staying away from alcohol, having faith in God and observing a code of conduct.
• He started a movement called ‘Ulgulan’, or ‘The Great Tumult’.
• His struggle against the exploitation and discrimination against tribals led to a big hit against the British government in the form of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act being passed in 1908. The act restricted the passing on of land from the tribal people to non-tribals.