• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister approved the establishment of International Big Cat Alliance (IBCA) with headquarters in India with a one-time budgetary support of Rs.150 crore for a period of five years from 2023-24 to 2027-28.
• IBCA’s Framework of Agreement has been substantially modelled after the International Solar Alliance.

BACKGROUND

• Prime Minister of India during his speech on the occasion of Global Tiger Day, 2019 called for an Alliance of Global Leaders to curb poaching in Asia.
• He reiterated this on the occasion of Commemorating 50 years of India’s Project Tiger on April 9, 2023 and formally announced launch of an International Big Cat Alliance aiming at securing the future of big cats and landscapes they thrive.

ABOUT IBCA

• The International Big Cat Alliance has been conceived as a multi-country, multi-agency coalition of
  • 96 big cat range countries,
  • non-range countries interested in big cat conservation,
  • conservation partners and scientific organizations working in the field of big cat conservation besides
  • business groups and corporates willing to contribute to the cause of big cats
• It aims to establish networks and develop synergies in a focused manner so as to bring to a common platform a centralized repository of successful practices and personnel, backed by financial support which can be leveraged to strengthen the conservation agenda in the field to arrest decline in big cat population and reverse the trend.
• IBCA governance consists of Assembly of Members, Standing Committee and a Secretariat with its Head Quarter in India.

• India has managed to bring down ‘extreme poverty’ below 3 per cent of its population, latest data on the World Poverty Clock showed.

ABOUT WORLD POVERTY CLOCK

• The World Poverty Clock provides real-time poverty estimates through 2030 for nearly every country in the world.
• It monitors progress against Ending Extreme Poverty, which is the UN’s first SDG.
  • The escape rate calculates the current rate of poverty reduction in the world.
• Funded by- The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany.
• The Clock shows the number of people living in extreme poverty worldwide, disaggregated by age, gender and rural/urban location.
• The clock has taken $2.15 a day income to present the finding.
  • Accordingly, in India nearly 44 crore people are living in extreme population in 2024 against 4.69 crore in 2022.

• Alexander Stubb was recently sworn in as the 13^th President of Finland.
• He is taking over from longtime former President Sauli Niinistö who served 16 years at the helm.
• Stubb promised to promote an open, safe and international Finland and ensure its continued success

• IPS officer Anurag Agarwal has been appointed as the new head of Parliament security.
• Currently an inspector general in CRPF, the 1998-batch officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre has been appointed as joint secretary (security) for three years.

• Larsen and Toubro has commissioned its first indigenously manufactured hydrogen electrolyser at the green hydrogen plant in Hazira, Gujarat.
• Featuring a rated power capacity of 1 MW (expandable to 2 MW), this electrolyser can produce 200 Nm3/Hr of hydrogen.
• It is equipped with two stacks and an electrolyser processing unit ML-400, and offers exceptional flexibility and thermal stability.
• Process
  • Hydrogen is made by splitting H2O (water) into two molecules — hydrogen and oxygen — via electrolysis, which is an electrical process.
  • The method requires electrolysers, and if the same is powered by renewable energy, then the product formed is green hydrogen — a fuel that is free of greenhouse emissions.

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Mauritian Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth jointly inaugurated an airstrip and the St James Jetty on North Agaléga Island in the Indian Ocean.
• Agaléga — a group of two islands with a total area of 26 sq km and a native population of about 300 people — lies approximately 650 nautical miles (1,050 km) north of Mauritius, and belongs to the island nation.
• Ties between India and Mauritius go back to 1948, 20 years before the country’s independence from Britain.
• Seventy per cent of the inhabitants of Mauritius are of Indian origin, and the two countries share deep historical, social, and cultural bonds.

• Maritime Exercise Samudra Lakshman was conducted off Visakhapatnam coast recently.
• The exercise aims to strengthen relations and enhance mutual understanding between the Indian and Royal Malaysian Navies.
• Indian Naval Ship Kiltan and Royal Malaysian Ship KD Lakir participated in the third edition of the exercise.
• The exercise is aimed at harbouring professional interactions between the two navies followed by the operational phase at sea during which both the contingents will jointly hone their skills while conducting various naval operations at sea.

• Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani has revealed plans for his ambitious wildlife conservation initiative in Gujarat.
• The wildlife conservation initiative is all set to become the largest zoo and rehabilitation centre globally.
• The vast project has been named ‘Vantara,’ translating to ‘Star Of The Forest’.
• It covers 3,000 acres within Reliance’s Jamnagar Refinery Complex, which is renowned as the Green Belt Of Gujarat.
• The initiative by Anant Ambani, the Director at Reliance Industries is backed by Reliance Industries and Reliance Foundation and plans to serve as a refuge for mistreated, harmed, and at-risk animals.
• Their vision is to make it more than just a zoo and rather turn it into a holistic rehabilitation centre for the wild animals.
• The plan also includes creating a habitat for these animals that resembles the verdant environment that they come from.

• United Nations World Wildlife Day (WWD) is celebrated every year on 3^rd March to celebrate wild animals and plants.
• The WWD2024 Theme is ‘Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation’.
• The theme highlights the potential of technology to advance conservation efforts.
• Brief history
  • World Wildlife Day was first proposed by Thailand to the UN General Assembly in 2013.
  • The General Assembly adopted a resolution on 20 December 2013, designating March 3 as World Wildlife Day in 2014.
    • The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), a global agreement to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival, was signed on this day in 1973.

• The project ‘Innovative Business Practices and Economic Models in the Textile Value Chain in India’ (IndiaTex) is a four-year UNEP funded project.
• IndiaTex aims to accelerate the transition of the Indian textile sector towards circularity.
• It is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark and implemented in collaboration with the Government of India’s Ministry of Textiles.
• The project will work with the industry at brand level and in two textile clusters in India:
  • Support SMEs in clusters to calculate their Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)
  • Support SME brands to implement and communicate about circular business models
• With the India Government, the project will:
  • Build capacity and support the development and implementation of circular textile policies.
  • Create convening opportunities for government, companies and organisations to coordinate and align on circular textiles ambition at national, regional and global level.